


A Silver Lining by the Light of the Moon

by glitterfics



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Community: polybigbang, First Time, Humor, Magic, Multi, Nerdiness, Sentinel/Guide, Sentinel/Guide Bonding, Threesome - F/M/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 17:09:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 40,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfics/pseuds/glitterfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Alphas capture Stiles along with Erica and Boyd which sets off a chain reaction that no-one could have forseen. Spells are lifted, family secrets are revealed and Stiles suddenly finds himself as one side of a Triad. Not only that, but the Alphas have stuck around and now have their sights firmly set on Stiles and his new lovers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Silver Lining by the Light of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Loads of thanks to my lovely beta lazydazyfics for yelling at me and making me finish this fic when I wanted to scrap it *face lick*  
> Also thanks to bunnymcfoo for stepping in to do the art at the final hour.
> 
> There is some Allison-bashing in this fic. I'm not an Allison hater but I felt that she deserved some sort of comeuppance for her behaviour at the end of season 2. I didn't mark for underage as I'm British and 16 is over the age of consent here but most of the pack are still in high school during this fic. Also this is a Sentinel/Guide bonding fic so please be aware of the dub con elements inherent in this particular trope.

Stiles jerked back to consciousness with a splutter as water splashed onto his face. He let out a groan when his various injuries made themselves known then blearily blinked up at the concerned face of Chris Argent.

“Stiles, what are you doing here?” Chris asked in a hushed tone.

“Oh, you know...just hanging with my peeps.” Stiles waved a hand in the direction he was pretty sure Erica and Boyd still were. “Your dad thought a reunion was in order.”

“My father did this.” It wasn’t really a question and Chris closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing hard. “I’m sorry, I’ve no idea why he went after you of all people.”

“Something about making Scott angry,” Stiles muttered absently, he was more focussed on the fact that he couldn’t actually focus. Everything was blurry which meant that he had a concussion. Again.

“Come on, I’ll get you home.” Chris helped Stiles get to his feet, grabbing his shoulder when Stiles began to sway. 

Chris’s hand landed right on what Stiles was sure was one of many bruises and he gritted his teeth to stop from making a yelp or something equally embarrassing. At least the bright burst of pain helped his head clear a little.

“What about those two?” Stiles could see Erica and Boyd now, both of them jolting as random bursts of electricity ran through them.

Chris glanced at them and shook his head sadly. “There’s nothing I can do to help them. I can get away with letting __you go because you’re human but...”

“Oh, come on!” Stiles only remembered to keep his voice quiet at the last moment. “They haven’t done anything wrong. Gerard _told me_ that he’s not expecting them to give him any information which means he’s just torturing them for his own sick pleasure. Where does that land on your damn code?” Chris flinched as if Stiles had physically hit him so Stiles kept going. “How can you just stand by and let him do this, any of it? You can see what he’s doing to Allison, right? He’s brainwashing her into becoming a mini Kate and we all remember how well the original version turned out.”

Narrowing his eyes, Chris shook his head. “Don’t bring Allison into this. She’s just lost her mother; she’s grieving.”

Stiles slumped, the burst of anger fuelled adrenaline fading away and leaving him more exhausted than he could ever remember being. “You’re not that stupid, Chris. The Allison I know wouldn’t just stand by and let one of her friends get the shit kicked out of them, no matter how much she was hurting.”

“She doesn’t know that you’re here,” Chris told him with a frown.

Stiles met his eyes wearily. “Are you really sure about that?”

The fact that Chris couldn’t answer that question spoke volumes. 

“Let us all go and then you should go to find Allison and keep her the hell away from your dad,” Stiles said quietly. “You do know that he’s taken control of the kanima?”

Chris didn’t even look surprised, just disappointed and suddenly as tired as Stiles was feeling. “I suspected when they found the body of that Matt kid...I just didn’t want to believe it.”

He stared off into the distance for a moment then seemed to come to a decision. He leaned Stiles carefully against the wall then walked over to Erica and Boyd. Stiles closed his eyes in relief and only half listened to the rambling monologue Chris was giving the two betas; something about lines? Stiles wasn’t sure, he was just concentrating on not slumping to the ground because he knew that would hurt.

He jumped when he felt an arm wrap around his waist.

“Easy, Stiles. We’ve got you,” Boyd told him as he pulled Stiles away from the wall and took most of his weight.

Stiles blinked as he looked around the room. Chris was suddenly gone and Erica was standing at the top of the stairs, listening at the closed door. How long had he blanked out for?

“Coast’s clear,” Erica hissed as Stiles and Boyd reached her.

The three of them quietly made their way out of the room and down an empty corridor. In fact all of the corridors were empty and the door, when they reached it, was unlocked. 

Stiles waited until they'd reached the relative safety of the woods opposite before saying, "Didn't that seem a bit too easy?"

"Argent said that he'd clear a path for us," Boyd shrugged and Stiles held in a wince when that jostled him.

He wasn't so successful when Erica punched his arm, even though she was blatantly holding back her strength. 

"I can't believe you just did that!" she told him. 

"Oww!" Stiles whined pitifully. "I couldn't just leave you there. God knows what Grandpa Crazy Eyes would've done to you."

Erica looked at him a moment longer before giving him a big hug which still hurt but was a lot better than the punching. "Thank you."

"We need to keep moving," Boyd reminded them and Erica pulled away.

She put her arm around Stiles from the other side and between her and Boyd, Stiles was barely carrying any of his own weight. It was probably for the best, he'd almost certainly have ended up falling on his face if he tried walking by himself.

"Where to?" he asked.

Erica and Boyd exchanged a look then Boyd said, "The Hale house."

Stiles nodded. He wanted to clean up a little and be in full control of his faculties before he faced his dad. He made a note to phone him as soon as they stopped though, sure that his father would be really worried about the way Stiles disappeared after the lacrosse match. He suddenly groaned as he realised that Gerard had taken his cell; he'd have to borrow Derek's which was sure to lead to more questions.

He blinked as he caught up to what Boyd had said. "Derek's moved back to the house with no roof and barely any walls?"

"That's where he was the last time we saw him," Boyd told him in an uncomfortable voice.

"O-kay..." Stiles said. "So where is he now? Can't you use your wolfy sense to track him down?"

"That's more of a pack thing." Erica avoided looking at Stiles as they manoeuvred their way around a ditch. "We...we left the pack."

"You did _what_?!" Stiles asked, incredulous.

"Allison tricked us," Erica mumbled miserably. "She made us believe that there was a new pack in town and, well, everything was falling apart in _our_ pack. Isaac was obviously going to leave and Derek wasn't telling us anything..."

"Just expecting you to do whatever he said." Stiles nodded, more than familiar with that particular habit of Derek's. 

"We still shouldn't have done it," Boyd said.

"Probably not," Stiles agreed. "But we're teenagers; we're all allowed to have a freak out now and then. He'll forgive you."

Erica's eyes looked suspiciously bright. "You really think so?"

"Pack is family, right?" Stiles gave her a small smile. "You always forgive your family."

The conversation died down after that but the tension in Erica and Boyd had melted somewhat and Stiles gave himself a pat on the back for that. They were finally in a part of the woods that Stiles recognised, which meant that they were getting closer to their destination, when Erica and Boyd froze. Stiles opened his mouth to ask what was wrong then stopped as howls suddenly filled the air; howls that were very close by and which made the hair on the back of Stiles' neck rise. 

He stared into the darkness then shrunk back when a pair of red eyes looked back. He instinctively knew that they didn't belong to Derek. A moment later more red eyes appeared and, as several figures stepped closer to them, Stiles realised they were completely surrounded by Alpha werewolves.

"Take them," an English voice commanded and the figures pounced.

Someone yanked Stiles out of Erica and Boyd's grip and he immediately began struggling and kicking out as hard as he could. A hand wrapped itself around his throat and began to squeeze, cutting off Stiles' oxygen supply. Tears sprang from his eyes as he clawed desperately at the hand but it didn't let up at all. His struggles gradually slowed and, for the second time that night, he passed out to the sound of his friends' pained whimpers.

* * * * * *

He woke up to the feeling of someone stroking his hair.

"You letting the buzz cut grow out, Stilinski?" Erica asked, obviously able to sense the moment he awoke.

He realised that he was using her thigh as a pillow and turned his head to look up at her.

"No time to get it cut," he croaked and winced as that hurt his throat. Another injury to add to his collection. "Where are we?"

"A bank vault," Boyd answered from where he sat, next to Erica and holding Stiles' hand.

Stiles moved to sit up then groaned when that made his head swim and sank back down. Erica didn't seem to mind, she just started to stroke through his hair again. He took several deep breaths until the nausea passed then inspected as much of the room as he could without moving too much. 

They were definitely in a bank vault; of the that bank in town which had closed down years ago if he was recognising that logo correctly from his awkward angle.

"What the hell are we doing here?" he asked.

Boyd sighed. "The walls are thick enough to hide our scents from anyone who might be looking for us."

"Damn it!" Stiles cursed. 

"The big question is, what do they want with us?" Erica pointed out. "If they're hiding our scents then it can't be to draw Derek into a trap."

"And if they wanted to kill us, they'd have done it in the woods," Boyd added in a way that told Stiles' they'd already had this particular conversation while he'd been unconscious.

They all jumped at the sudden noise of the vault door opening.

"I guess we're about to find out," Stiles muttered, very slowly sitting up with help from the other two. 

By the time the vault door was fully open, Stiles was sitting between Erica and Boyd; sweating from the exertion but at least he was in a less vulnerable position. Five people walked into the room, a blind man immediately attracting Stiles' attention. He didn't even know werewolves could be blinded; didn't they heal from almost all injuries?

The blind guy stepped forward. "Didn't your parents tell you to stay out of the woods at night? You never know what monsters lurk in the dark."

Stiles resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the posturing but at least he now knew who was in charge of this group of Alphas; it had been the blind guy's voice he'd heard ordering the others in the woods.

Erica and Boyd were both growling lowly and Stiles squeezed their hands, trying to tell them to calm down but it didn't do much good.

"I was really only expecting to get hold of Derek's betas tonight," Blind Guy continued. "I'd be a little disappointed that we only got two out of the three if we hadn't found ourselves a bonus; Scott McCall's human. It's Stiles, isn't it?"

"And you would be?" Stiles asked, not bothering to confirm or deny his name because the Alphas obviously knew _exactly_ who they all were.

Blind Guy smiled. "My name's Deucalion."

Jesus. Stiles really did roll his eyes at that, causing a few pairs of eyes to flash red in response. "Okay, _Deucalion_. What are we doing here?"

"You are..." Deucalion tilted his head as if in thought then smiled again. "...sacrifices."

"You're going to kill us." Stiles felt kind of proud that Erica's voice only showed the tiniest bit of fear.

Deucalion laughed at that. "Now why would we kill you, when we can get your friends to do it for us?"

"That's not going to happen," Boyd growled.

Deucalion hummed. "Actually, you'd be surprised what can happen with a little bit of patience. Ennis?"

At a gesture of Deucalion's cane, the terrifying professional wrestler looking dude walked closer to them. Erica and Boyd immediately jumped to their feet, standing in front of Stiles, growling and snarling at the man. Deucalion sighed, made another gesture and, within minutes, Erica and Boyd were being held by the set of identical twins while the gorgeous woman who was in dire need of a pedicure was digging her claws into their throats warningly. 

Ennis dragged Stiles to his feet and threw him against the wall so hard that he could actually hear his shoulder pop out of its socket a split second before the blinding pain of it washed over him. When he managed to stop screaming, he could vaguely hear Erica and Boyd yelling but couldn't make out what exactly they were shouting. In fact, the only thing that pierced the fog of pain that Stiles was surrounded with was the sudden feeling of someone running their hands over his face. He flinched back automatically and let out another scream when that jarred his dislocated shoulder.

"Kali was right, you are a pretty one," Deucalion was saying, still stroking his hands across Stiles' face. 

Stiles looked beyond Deucalion and saw the female Alpha give him a flirty wink even as she tightened her grip on the throats of his friends.

"As I mentioned earlier, you were an _unexpected_ gift," Deucalion told him. "But plans can always be adapted." The hands left Stiles' face and ran across his uninjured shoulder down to his wrist. "You're in a great amount of pain right now, I know that, but I promise that it will all heal soon enough."

Stiles frowned as his brain struggled against the fog to figure out what that meant. When the light bulb went off, he tried to pull his hand away from Deucalion but Ennis squeezed his dislocated shoulder causing the waves of agony to crash over him again. By the time Stiles came back to himself, Deucalion had already bitten him.

Ennis let go and Stiles slid down the wall until he sat splayed on the floor, staring at the large bite mark on his arm as the Alphas all left the room and the vault door closed again. Erica and Boyd scrambled over the floor to get to him and held him down as they popped his shoulder back into place. It wouldn’t do to let it heal wrong, he guessed, feeling dazed. Completely exhausted, Stiles then let them wrap themselves around him as if they thought they could protect him from what was coming by sheer force of will alone. 

At some point, while they all sat tangled in each other waiting for Stiles' bite mark to slowly heal, Stiles actually fell asleep. His dreams were filled with terrifying images of red eyed monsters chasing him, of him _as_ the monster ripping his friends and family apart. He occasionally woke up to frantic whispers of 'fever' and 'not healing' but he'd be dragged back to those terrible dreams before he even had a chance to open his eyes.

When he finally woke for real, it was to curly blonde hair tickling his face. He was lying on the floor, with Erica fast asleep on his chest while Stiles was cushioned on Boyd with the other boy snoring softly into his ear. Stiles lifted a hand to push Erica's hair off his face then froze, looking at the very much _un_ healed bite mark on his arm. He took a quick inventory of his body and, yes, all his previous injuries were present and accounted for with a bonus headache to boot. He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been asleep but it had definitely been long enough for the bite to have taken effect.

The sudden tension in his body was enough to wake the other two.

"Stiles?" Erica lifted her head to look at him and relief crashed over her face. "Oh my god, we were so worried. You wouldn't wake up and you weren't healing..."

"I noticed that last one, actually," Stiles said wryly as the other two helped him to sit up and then he batted Boyd's hands away as they tried to inspect his still very sore ribs. "How long was I asleep?"

"Three days," Boyd told him and Stiles gasped. 

They'd been missing for over three days? His heart clenched as he imagined what his dad must be going through. He got dizzy for a moment and swore that he could hear his dad's voice inside his head, calling his name, but figured that it was probably remnants of whatever he'd just been through.

He opened his eyes to see the other two hovering uncertainly as if they thought he was going to pass out again so he gave them a strained smile. "Sorry, it was just a bit of a shock."

Boyd nodded understandingly then redoubled his efforts to check Stiles' injuries while Erica disappeared and returned with a bottle of water and some cookies.

"The twins have been bringing us food a couple of times a day," she explained as Stiles gratefully downed half the bottle of water in one go. "We've only seen the others when they've come in to check on you. Deucalion seems pretty worried."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "He's probably just pissed that his awesome plan didn't work."

"It really didn't," Boyd told him. "Your scent has changed but you don't smell like a werewolf."

"What do I smell like?" Stiles asked but his mind was already remembering Scott saying something very similar about Lydia after she was bitten by Peter. Was Stiles immune too?

"Lightening," Erica replied at the same time that Boyd said,

"A storm."

Stiles snorted and practically inhaled the cookies while the two betas began bickering over the difference between lightening and an actual storm and which one Stiles smelled like.

The argument was long since over and declared by Stiles to be a draw when the vault door opened. 

Erica and Boyd once again leapt to defensive positions in front of Stiles and while he appreciated it, he didn't want to see them get hurt for it this time. He slowly and painfully pushed himself to his feet and faced the Alphas. He also put a hand on each of his friends and rubbed soothing circles onto their backs hoping that would help them rein it back a bit. He blinked in surprise when it seemed to work this time.

"Our little mystery is awake," Deucalion said as he walked closer. 

"What the hell are you?" Kali hissed then yelped when Deucalion hit her with his cane.

"Forgive Kali, she gets a little on edge when faced with something she doesn't understand," Deucalion explained. "Her question is valid though. Your body didn't reject the bite otherwise you'd be dead in a pool of black vomit by now. Which means that you, young Stiles, are not entirely human."

"My bruised and _bitten_ body says otherwise," Stiles automatically replied while his mind was busy reeling over that little titbit. 

"Another part of the mystery." Deucalion nodded. "Well, hopefully I'll get some time to figure it out before you die. It's a shame that you're now going to get ripped to pieces by these two betas instead of your buddy, Scott, but as I said before, plans are always adaptable."

His words caused Erica and Boyd to start growling again but a minute later their growls were joined by ones from Kali and the twins. Deucalion tilted his head towards the door and his expression turned furious. He flipped his cane upside down and removed the stopper to reveal a wicked looking arrow tip. His hand clenched tightly on the cane and, for a moment, Stiles was sure that he was going to attack them with it but after a tense moment, Deucalion put the stopper back in place.

“How did they find us?” he asked over his shoulder with a low growl. 

Kali glared at Stiles. “It must be _him_ ; I told you that we should kill him before he caused problems.”

“And _I_ told _you_ , no,” Deucalion snapped. He glanced in the direction of the door again as Ennis appeared.

“They’re almost here,” Ennis said. “If we’re fighting, I’m not doing it all by myself.”

Deucalion frowned then shook his head. “It’s not the right time.”

His eyes flashed and he growled one last time at Stiles, Erica and Boyd before he turned around and stalked out of the vault with the other Alphas in tow. They didn't even close the door after them.

Stiles let out the breath he’d been holding and slumped back against the wall in relief. 

"Derek," Erica said in a choked voice and took off for the door only to pull up suddenly then return to sling an arm around Stiles.

Boyd did the same and Stiles had a moment of déjà vu as they pretty much carried him out of the vault.

"Stiles!"

Stiles head whipped around and he let out a sob of relief when he saw his dad running towards them. As soon as he was close enough, he pulled Stiles out of the other two's hold and into a giant bear hug. Stiles winced but hugged back as hard as he could, nodding his head to the impatiently hovering betas. They both grinned at him then ran off down the corridor to look for Derek.

"God, Stiles, don't you _ever_ do that to me again," His dad muttered against his hair.

"Didn't exactly plan on doing it this time," Stiles pointed out then was unable to hold back a tiny yelp of pain when his dad squeezed him even harder.

Immediately, his dad pulled back and his eyes widened as he seemed to realise for the first time the full extent of Stiles' injuries. He gently touched the bruises circling Stiles’ throat."Christ, kid. What the hell did they do to you?" 

Stiles had an urge to ask which 'who' his dad was talking about but instead shrugged. "I guess I just mouthed off one too many times."

He waited for the sarcastic response but that fact that there wasn't one showed just how worried his dad was. 

"Can you walk by yourself?"

"I can try?" Stiles replied and his dad closed his eyes briefly.

"Alright, so we have to do this now," he mumbled to himself then he pinned Stiles with look. "Just don't...freak out. I'll explain everything when we get home."

"What..." 

Stiles trailed off as his dad raised his hands so that the palms were facing Stiles and he could see that each hand had begun to give off a soft golden glow. Stiles' eyes widened when his dad pressed both hands to his chest and a sudden feeling washed over Stiles. It was like being submerged in warm water and every part of Stiles relaxed. He couldn't help but give a sigh of relief as his pain slowly disappeared and when his dad pulled his hands away, Stiles automatically chased after them before his dad's soft chuckle stopped him. 

Stiles blinked his eyes open, even though he couldn't even remember closing them, and stared at his dad in disbelief.

"Feel better?" his dad asked and Stiles really, really did.

He rotated his bad shoulder and didn't even get a twinge of pain, he could breathe properly for the first time since Gerard began kicking him in the ribs and, when he lifted his arm, the bite mark had disappeared as if it had never been there. He still had the headache but he wasn't exactly going to complain about that.

"What..." he tried again but his dad cut him off.

"I'll explain later."

It was a good thing his dad had _healed him_ (seriously, what the hell?) because the next second, Scott barrelled into the side of Stiles and took them both to the floor.

"Umm...Scott...?" Stiles tried but when Scott just nuzzled into his neck making happy noises, he sighed. "Yeah, I missed you too, dude."

"I couldn't find your scent or your heartbeat anywhere," Scott told him. "It was horrible. I felt like I was going crazy."

Stiles froze for a second and looked at his dad, an excuse about Scott rambling nonsense when panicked on his lips, but his dad snorted.

"Werewolf, my ass. More like a giant puppy."

It was at this point that Stiles began to suspect that this was all some very weird, very vivid, werewolf bite induced hallucination. A suspicion that grew stronger when Stiles and his dad finally managed to drag Scott off him and they made their way to the main foyer of the bank. Erica and Boyd were enthusiastically rolling about on the floor with Isaac while Derek watched on with the hint of a real smile. Jackson was standing next to Derek, doing the same but with less almost smiling and more sneering. Lydia was quizzing Deaton on something and in the corner stood...

"What the fuck?!" Stiles pointed a finger.

"Stiles," Peter nodded at him with a slight smirk.

Stiles opened and closed his mouth a few times. "No, what the _actual_ fuck?"

"Lydia brought him back," Derek said, crossing his arms and shooting Lydia a dark look.

Lydia glared back at him. "It's not as though I had any choice in the matter."

The two of them then turned their glares on Peter who shrank back a little.

The three wolves on the floor had stopped whatever the hell it was that they were doing and Boyd was eying Stiles. "Where have all your injuries gone?"

"On that note, I'm taking my son home for a long chat," Stiles' dad suddenly said and began dragging Stiles towards the entrance. "You can all catch each other up on stuff tomorrow."

Scott eagerly trotted after them, which really didn't help dispel Stiles' dad's observation about him being a puppy, but he stopped just before they walked out the door and looked at Stiles strangely. "Dude, why are you glowing?"

Stiles looked down and blinked in surprise at the very faint silver glow surrounding him. He lifted his head to see his dad staring over Stiles' shoulder with a look of horror on his face. When Stiles turned around, there was the same faint glow surrounding both Erica and Derek.

"Aww, crap!" The sheriff swore.

* * * * * *

It took ten minutes to drive home and another thirty before Scott would leave but finally, Stiles sat on the sofa and stared expectantly at his dad. His dad stared back for a long moment before he got up and left the room, returning with a bottle of whiskey, a tumbler and a bottle of beer, the latter of which he handed wordlessly to Stiles.

"Okay, so this is going to be really bad," Stiles observed.

His dad shook his head. "Not bad...well, some of it bad but mostly it's just...difficult to understand."

He poured himself a large shot of whiskey then stared at Stiles some more.

"Oh my god, just say something!" Stiles finally cried.

"We're druids!" his dad instantly yelled back.

Stiles frowned. "Wait, what?"

His dad sighed. "You obviously know that Alan Deaton is a druid..."

"Actually, no," Stiles said. "He's kind of an extra cryptic Mr Miyagi. We knew he was _something_ , just not what that something was."

"Oh. Well...he's a druid. Now you know." His dad took a sip of his drink. 

Stiles stared at him. "Deaton's a druid...and so are you?"

"So are _we_ ," his dad replied. "It runs in families. Your grandmother, me and now you."

"I guess that's why the werewolf's bite didn't take," Stiles muttered to himself.

His dad's head shot up. "One of the werewolves bit you? That explains everything."

"It explains _what_ , dad?" Stiles finally snapped, jumping to his feet to pace angrily around the room. "That you've apparently been lying to me my entire life? That while I went crazy trying to keep all this werewolf crap from you, you knew all along? Do you have any idea how much it hurt to keep secrets from you? Or how much I needed your help and couldn't ask for it because I thought I was keeping you safe?"

His dad stood up and pulled him into a hug. Stiles struggled to get away, so furious that he couldn't see straight, but his dad held on until Stiles finally wore himself out and collapsed against him.

"I'm so sorry, son," he whispered into Stiles' hair. " _I didn't know_. I wasn't lying to you, not intentionally; I just didn't remember. Not until a few days ago."

"What's that even mean?" Stiles didn't lift his head, hiding the angry tears even though he knew his dad could hear them in his voice.

"That's a pretty long story." His dad sighed. He led Stiles back to the sofa and then pulled him back into the hug once they were sitting, just like he used to do when Stiles was younger. "It begins with something known as a soul bond. Certain people with...a supernatural inclination, or a human with strong enough sensitivity to it, have an extra power. It either manifests as heightened senses and an urge to protect people or as the ability to sense other people's emotions and an urge to nurture people. The first lot are known as Sentinels while the second are called Guides."

Stiles frowned. "You used to call mom your 'beautiful Guide'."

"Yes, I did," his dad admitted with a small smile. "Because that's exactly what she was. Every Sentinel has a Guide, someone who's destined for them. When they meet they form a soul bond, a connection so deep that they can sense each other even when they aren't together. That's what I had with your mother."

"Was she...?" Stiles' voice broke as it always did when they talked about her but his dad knew what he was about to ask.

"No, she was one hundred percent human and she _did_ know that I'm a druid...so did you, back then."

"I don't remember," Stiles said.

"I know," his dad told him. "You were still just a kid when she died and then with the spell..."

"Spell?" Stiles asked. "Did you cast a spell on us? On me?"

"I didn't," his dad rushed to assure him. "But others did. You have to understand that when someone with a soul bond loses their partner, the pain is so great..." He paused and took a steadying breath before continuing. "...It's so great that the remaining partner will often go crazy from it. A werewolf could go feral or a druid...we could become our worst nightmare, using our powers to intentionally hurt people instead of help them. There's a name for that, it's called a Darach."

"Someone thought that _you_ would turn into one of these Darach things?" Stiles' voice was incredulous. 

"Probably more than one person actually. I loved her so much and I couldn't fix her..." His dad sighed. "Besides, it doesn't really matter if they did or not; there was a child involved and there had been too many incidents in the past to take the risk. So all the druids in the area at the time got together and cast a spell on us; one that would take our memories of the magic and the supernatural, one that nullified our magic and took the extra pain away."

Stiles thought about that. "Deaton?"

"Yes."

"But he had me cast a spell recently," Stiles told him. "He made me put a circle of mountain ash around a building. That's hardly keeping knowledge of magic from me."

"So he told me." His dad shook his head. "Deaton's always been one to push the boundaries when he thinks it's needed and making a protective circle _is_ very basic; you could probably do it in your sleep now the spell has gone."

Stiles looked at him sceptically. “You sure about that?”

His dad chuckled. “I am. We’ll get you trained up in no time.”

“You’re training me? You mean I _don’t_ get to go to Hogwarts?” Stiles asked. It was a weak joke but it made him feel more like himself and less like he'd fallen into a rabbit hole. “Because, I have to tell you, I’d make an awesome Hufflepuff.”

With a snort, his dad pulled away and stretched before standing. “Come on, _chosen one_. Lets order some pizza before we go any further.”

For once, Stiles didn’t protest when his dad ordered all the unhealthiest toppings; he figured they both deserved it after the past few days. They ate in silence. All of Stiles’ anger had evaporated but his whole life had still been turned on its head and he needed a bit of time to think it all through.

“Alright,” he finally said, throwing the last piece of pizza crust back into the box. “You said that the werewolf bite I got explained everything. What did you mean?”

His dad eyed the pizza crust as if he wanted to snatch it up but finally just shut the box. “A werewolf bite won’t work on us; just makes us sick for a while. But the power of it would have broken the spell that was cast over you and, because it was all part of the same spell, me too.”

Stiles nodded, that made sense. Well, as much as any of this made sense. “Does that mean that Lydia’s a druid too? She didn’t change after Peter bit her.”

Stiles could read his father's expression and see the pieces falling into place; Lydia being attacked by a wild animal, the mysterious illness that kept her unconscious, the naked run through the woods... 

“I know that her parents aren’t druids so, no,” his dad finally said. “But if the bite didn’t work then she’s definitely something.”

“Yeah, we thought she was the kanima for a while there but that turned out to be Jackson,” Stiles told him. 

“Deaton mentioned a kanima but, to be honest, I was so focussed on finding you that I didn’t take much of it in,” his dad admitted.

Stiles looked at him. “How _did_ you find us? Boyd said that the walls were too thick for someone to pick up our scents.”

“By casting almost constantly until I could get a fix on you.” His dad shook his head. “I could only get vague impressions here and there until you suddenly popped up, bright as a star, earlier today. I’m guessing that was because you got sick from the bite and that hid you from me.”

“You can track me?” Stiles’ eyes grew wide. “I’m never going to get away with anything ever again, am I?”

“Nope.” His dad gave him a smug smile then chuckled. “Don’t look so worried, I’ll only use it in emergencies. Or when you’re acting in a suspicious manner. Or when you and Scott do something weird...”

“Dad!” Stiles whined but he was smiling too. “I guess that I’m grateful about it today. The Alphas kept talking about how they were going to make Scott and Derek kill us and seemed pretty certain that they would. I think they must've had some other plan going on which would ensure it.”

His dad’s forehead crinkled. “Alright, I think it’s time that you tell me exactly what happened. Actually, _everything_ that’s happened; starting with Scott being a werewolf.”

So Stiles did. He told him all about Scott being bitten, helping him with his control, their tenuous and often broken alliance with Derek. Not to mention Peter, Allison and her crazy family, the kanima, Lydia... By the time he was finished, his dad was looking more than a little shell shocked and Stiles couldn’t blame him, he often felt that way himself lately.

“I really wish I could be more surprised that you’ve been in the middle of all this.” His dad shook his head.

“Because I’m such a trouble magnet?” Stiles smirked.

“Because you take after your mother,” his dad corrected and Stiles’ breath hitched. “She could never stand by while other people were in trouble either. It’s what made her such a good Guide. It’s why you’ll be a great one.”

Stiles blinked. “Wait...are you saying that I’m a Guide as well as being a druid?”

“It certainly looks that way,” his dad said. “The silver glow you had earlier? Me and your mother had the same thing when we first met each other.”

“It’s the whole soul bond thingy?” Stiles frowned. “Erica and Derek were glowing too.”

His dad sighed. “I know and before you ask, I’m not _entirely_ sure what that means yet; it should have been two of you not three. Give me some time to look into it.”

“I can do that,” Stiles agreed, mostly because he was so exhausted by everything that had happened since the lacrosse game, topped by the revelations of the past few hours, that he’d probably fall asleep any minute.

His dad stood and pulled Stiles up after him. “Go to bed, we’ll talk more tomorrow. We’ve both got sick notes for the next couple of days.”

“Thanks, dad.” Stiles gave his father one last hug then dragged himself up the stairs. He stopped just inside his bedroom door. “Seriously, Scott? Did you leave at all?”

“No." Scott gave him a sheepish look. "I guess..it’s a werewolf thing? I just...I need to be sure that you’re home and that you're okay.”

Stiles shook his head then faceplanted onto the bed next to his friend. He was far too tired to argue and it wasn’t like he and Scott had never shared the same bed before. 

“Thanks, Stiles.” He heard Scott say before he fell fast asleep.

* * * * * *

It was gone noon by the time he woke up. Scott had long since left but there was a note saying he’d be over to talk as soon as school let out. Stiles took the longest, hottest shower in the history of mankind before venturing downstairs. To his surprise, Deaton was sitting at the kitchen table, pouring over books with his dad.

“You’re looking more like yourself again, Stiles.” Deaton smiled. “It’s good to have you back.”

“Good to be back, doc,” Stiles told him before crossing the room to grab a coffee. “What’s going on?”

“Well, we think we’ve figured out what the Alphas planned to do with you guys,” his dad said, tapping his finger on a blueprint that was hidden beneath lots of paper and books. 

Stiles sat down and pulled the blueprint free to study it. “Huh, is this how those guys broke into the bank that time?” 

He remembered his dad telling him the story of the bank robbery when Stiles was little.

His dad nodded. “I pulled my old file on it this morning. They went down the air shaft and drilled right through the wall into the vault. The hole was obviously filled in and the wall rebuilt but the shaft is still there.”

“Here’s the interesting part,” Deaton joined in. “The walls in the vault were made out of hecatolite. It’s a mineral that can block moonlight. It literally stops any moonlight _at all_ from getting into that vault. If werewolves were held in there for long enough they’d be stopped from feeling the effects of the full moon.”

Stiles looked at him. “What would happen to them?”

“Nothing on the face of it,” Deaton replied. “But if they were kept away from the full moon for more than...say three or four months then got suddenly exposed again? They would have no control at all. They’d be completely feral until the sun rose.”

His dad nodded. “We think that the Alphas were planning to hold you all in the vault for months and then deliberately lead Derek and Scott to the bank and to the air shaft. Basically manipulate them into mounting a rescue attempt on a full moon.”

“And when they broke through the wall, the vault would be flooded in moonlight.” Stiles shook his head; it was kind of ingenious. _Evil_ but definitely clever. “We'd turn feral and they'd be forced to either kill us to save themselves or kill us to stop us from escaping and ripping innocent people to shreds."

"Luckily for all of us; they had no idea of what _you_ are when they decided to kidnap you," Deaton said. "This all could have gone very differently."

Stiles pulled out his phone and began taking pictures of the notes his dad and Deaton had made. "I'll show this to Scott and Derek later. At least they'll know what type of people we're up against."

Deaton glanced at Stiles' dad. "Speaking of Derek..." His dad groaned but waved a hand for Deaton to continue. "We've also been looking into the soul bond. Namely why three of you were glowing instead of two."

From the look on his dad's face, Stiles had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what was coming. 

"That as well? You have been busy. I didn't sleep through an entire day without realising it, did I? Because it wouldn't be the first time that's happened this week," he babbled.

His dad gave him a half hearted glare that showed he knew Stiles was stalling, then picked up a very old looking book and placed it in front of Stiles. "I knew I'd heard of it before somewhere but, well, I've got a bit rusty at all this."

Deaton snorted at that before he turned to Stiles. "It's called a Triad. It's very rare and very powerful. There hasn't been one in my lifetime...until now."

Stiles quickly skimmed over the page, resisting the urge to touch the book because, quite frankly, it looked like it would fall apart if he did. Most of the text was about what his dad had explained the night before; Sentinels, Guides and soul bonds. He made a note to reread it a lot more carefully at a later point. 

There, towards the bottom of the page was a mention of Triads; a soul bond between three people, either two Guides and a Sentinel or two Sentinels and a Guide. They were usually formed in an area that had suffered great loss and was in need of protection, which the Triad would then provide. They were greatly revered, often attracting followers and those in need of guidance. 

"Followers? Really? I can barely keep my best friend's attention," Stiles muttered to himself before looking up. "This can't be what's actually going on. I mean, people looking for guidance? You have _met_ me, Derek and Erica, right?"

"You are young and inexperienced," Deaton agreed. "But these types of roles are grown into. No one ever starts out knowing everything and getting it all right straight off the bat; you learn as you go. And you can't deny that the rest of it fits. Beacon Hills has suffered great loss in the last decade; the majority of one of the largest werewolf packs in the state, a Guide and even though we've got you back we did lose two druids and a Sentinel there for a while. That's without the recent human deaths."

"And you're looking to _us_ to try and fix all that?" Stiles asked incredulously.

Deaton smiled. "No. I'm looking to you to do something that you're already doing; protecting the people of this town."

"I'm not particularly happy about any of this. I think you're far too young to have this foisted on you," Stiles' dad said. "But you have to know that I'll always help you in any way that I can. It is sort of my job, after all."

"I know, dad." Stiles smiled at him. "So, how does this work anyway? From what you told me last night, this soul bond seemed like love at first sight for you and mom. And despite the fact that me and Erica did become friends during this latest disaster, I'm definitely not in love with her. Also, Derek's an asshole."

Deaton laughed. "You'll feel differently when you complete the bond, I promise. I think being under the spell for so long has slowed down the speed of your Guide powers emerging and therefore slowed the usual sudden urge to bond but I'm sure it'll happen pretty soon."

"Deaton, don't say things like that!" Stiles' dad dropped his head into his hands. "This is my seventeen year old son, you're talking about. I'm trying very hard not to think about that aspect of it all."

Deaton looked at him. "How old were you when you completed your bond?"

"Eighteen!" His dad protested. "Or to put it another way; legal."

Deaton hummed. "And Claudia was how old again?"

His dad glared. "That's not the point."

"She was the same age as Stiles," Deaton stated with a smug look.

Stiles stared back and fore between the bickering men with a slowly dawning realisation.

"I have to have _sex_?" he suddenly yelped. "With the _both of them_? That's what 'completing the bond' means?"

His father dropped his head into his hands once more and groaned loudly. 

"I'll take that as my cue to leave," Deaton said, standing up and clapping Stiles on the shoulder. "You'll do fine."

After Deaton left, an awkward silence descended on the kitchen until Stiles' dad finally raised his head with a pinched expression on his face. "Son, when you complete the bond..."

"No!" Stiles held his hand up. "We are not having a magical version of 'The Talk'. The standard version was terrifying enough and covered everything I need to know with a ridiculous amount of detail."

"Fair enough." His dad nodded, looking relieved. "But I just want to say...follow your instincts and there's nothing to be nervous about. Now, how about I start your training and we forget this conversation ever took place?"

"Works for me," Stiles said, equally eager to drag his mind away from this latest development.

It wasn't as though he didn't find either of the other two attractive, far from it really because they were blatantly gorgeous and so far out of his league that it was laughable, but it was still _Erica and Derek_. The girl who'd knocked him out with the starter from his own jeep and the guy who seemed to delight in scaring the shit out of Stiles at every opportunity. Although, now that he was thinking about it, he and Derek _had_ mellowed towards each other lately, in the way that only numerous saving of each other's lives could do. And Erica had been genuinely concerned about Stiles and took care of him after they left the Argent's house... Jesus, it was all so confusing.

He followed his dad out to the garden and was promptly handed a jar of familiar looking black powder. 

"Let's start with the basics," his dad said with a grin.

The mountain ash protective circles were pretty easy to master, after all he'd used the stuff before. It was a little more tricky to do the nifty new 'throwing it in the air and making it land in a perfect circle around you' thing and Stiles got showered in the ash more than a few times. But pretty soon, he wasn't only able to do that, he could also summon the ash out of thin air. Which was handy because he didn't want to carry jars around with him all the time.

He began to struggle when they moved onto defensive magic. Namely, forcing someone away from you without touching them. After the fiftieth 'just believe you can do it, son', his dad sat down on the back step, looking a bit frustrated.

"How can you believe in the protective circle and not this?" he asked.

Stiles shrugged and sat down beside him. "Because the ability to actually move things with the power of my mind is pretty hard to believe? Because I know I'm not a Jedi?" He sighed. "Also, I want it stated on the record that video games are full of crap. They make it look so easy, the characters just..."

He swept his hand out in front of him and a tiny burst of red light left it and knocked over a garden chair.

Stiles and his dad looked at each other.

"Do that again," his dad said.

So Stiles made the same movement resulting in another burst of light and another upturned chair. 

"Ha ha!" Stiles crowed, leaping to his feet and beginning to randomly shoot bits of light from his hand. "I just need to visualise it as a video game. Why didn't I think of that instead of all that _believing in myself_ hippy nonsense? Oh Skyrim, I'll never speak ill of you again."

His dad frowned. "But by visualising it, you _are_ believing...oh, never mind." He tilted his head. "Scott's at the door, I'll go let him in. We could use his help anyway."

"How...?" Stiles began, confused then nodded to himself. "Sentinels have heightened senses, right. Well, that's going to take some getting used to. I'll add it to the list of other stuff."

Then Scott came bounding out into the garden and Stiles promptly knocked him on his ass with a burst of light.

"Holy shit!" Scott cried.

"I know!" Stiles grinned.

Scott got back to his feet excitedly. "What else can you do?"

"Funny you should ask that, Scott," Stiles' dad said as he appeared back in the doorway with a truly evil smile on his face.

Stiles spent the next couple of hours trying out different spells on his very own, self healing, crash test dummy. It wasn't as if he actually hurt Scott, just gave him a few bruises; nothing that he wouldn't have got in the lacrosse practise he'd skipped out on and nothing that didn't vanish in minutes. Besides, Scott was just as psyched about the whole magic thing as Stiles was.

After that, Stiles and Scott drove to get some burgers and then sat in the jeep in the parking lot so that they could eat and chat in private. Scott had already overheard Stiles and his dad talking the night before so knew all about the druid thing and everything that had happened to Stiles, Boyd and Erica. So instead Scott filled Stiles in on everything that had happened with Gerard and Jackson; Chris teaming up with the werewolves, Gerard's grand plan, the mountain ash pills and how Jackson had almost killed them all after Gerard collapsed. 

Stiles was a little freaked out that Lydia had just shown up there, claiming that she'd been headed to Stiles' house to help look for him and had no idea how she got to the warehouse. He and his dad really needed to figure out what she was. Although, considering that she managed to save Jackson with the _power of her love_ , Stiles didn't think it could be anything evil.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Scott suddenly said, fishing Stiles' phone out of his pocket and handing it over. "Chris was waiting for me after school and asked me to give it back to you."

"Allison couldn't pass it along?" Stiles kept his voice deliberately light but Scott frowned at him anyway; he was probably listening to Stiles' heartbeat with his freaky werewolf hearing.

"She hasn't been back to school yet," Scott told him. "I'm supposed to go and see her later. She asked if we could 'talk' so I'm pretty sure that she's going to break up with me. But I think that's okay...I think that after everything we've been through, maybe we both need some space."

Stiles looked at his friend in shock. "Who are you and what have you done with Scott McCall?"

Scott laughed and threw a fry at his head. "I don't know, I just think that if we're meant to be, and I _do_ think that we are, then we'll find our way there eventually. We don't need to force it right now."

Stiles debated with himself for a moment then shrugged it away and threw himself across the jeep to ruffle Scott's hair. "My lil' Scotty, all grown up."

"Get off!" Scott batted his hands away. "You're just happy that we're both single again and you can finally make me watch all those movies you've been bugging me about for months."

"Yeah, about that..."

Scott's laughter trailed off as he looked at the worried expression on Stiles' face. "What?"

Stiles quickly told him everything about the Triad and Scott gaped at him. "Oh my god!"

"I know," Stiles whined. 

"Your first time is going to be a threesome, dude!"

Stiles' frowned. "You kind of missed the point there, Scott."

"Not really." Scott shrugged. "I was just trying to highlight the good aspects. I mean, how many people can say _that's_ how they lost their virginity?"

"True." Stiles nodded thoughtfully then flailed his hands about. "No, not going there. I need to focus on the fact that first I have to _tell_ them what's going on and I have no idea how I'm going to do that. 'Hey guys, remember me? The guy you barely tolerate? Well, we're apparently soul mates and you're going to be stuck with me from now on'."

"I wouldn't say it like _that_ ," Scott said. "Just...give them the facts. Besides, Erica likes you now; she was all worried about you in school today."

Stiles sighed. "There's a big difference between liking someone and 'I want to spend the rest of my life with you'."

Scott gave him a sympathetic look. "Maybe you should stop worrying about what they're going to say and just get it over with. Like ripping off a band aid."

Stiles took a deep breath and picked up his phone. "Yeah, alright."

He sent off a quick text to Derek and Erica, saying that they needed to talk asap. Then he went through the 32 texts he'd received since he last saw his phone. Most of them were from after Gerard's guys had bundled him into an SUV and the majority of those were from his dad and Scott. Then there were a load received that day, saying they were glad he was home and that they hoped he was okay. There was even one from Danny which made Stiles smile. He'd just reached the end of them when he got a reply from Derek; just an address and '30 minutes'.

He dropped Scott off a block from Allison's house, which he was glad about because it would be a while before he would be comfortable anywhere near the House of Torture and Pain© Then he drove to the address Derek had given and sat outside in the jeep for ten minutes trying to work up the nerve to just go in. 

"Like ripping off a band aid," he muttered to himself and climbed out of the jeep only to be immediately accosted by three excitable beta werewolves. "Whoa...uh...hey, guys?"

"Derek wouldn't let us come to your house to check that you were okay," Erica muttered sulkily, snuggling into his chest. "He said you needed time to recover."

Boyd was behind him and sniffing his neck. "You don't smell sick anymore but you don't smell like us either. I don't like it."

"Why were you just sitting in your jeep?" Isaac asked from where he was squeezing Stiles' shoulder, apparently not as comfortable with the hugging as the other two were. "You've been out here for ages."

"Umm..." Stiles wasn't sure which of them to respond to first but then all three of them simultaneously turned to look up at a high window where Stiles could just make out the figure of Derek looking down at them.

"Come on, you can tell us inside," Isaac said, pulling Stiles and the two limpets attached to him into the building. 

"New digs?" Stiles asked as they stood in the ancient looking elevator, a little relieved that they'd all let go of him because he wasn't sure what to do with the touchy feely-ness. He guessed that it had something to do with going through all that trauma with Erica and Boyd; he knew that he felt a lot closer to the two of them now and it must be doubly so for them and, by extension, Isaac.

"Yeah." Isaac smiled. "It's a lot better than the depot."

Stiles gave a low whistle when they stepped out into the loft Derek had managed to commandeer. "You weren't kidding."

It was huge, had actual furniture and looked like a place where normal people would live, unlike Derek's last two 'dens'.

Derek was leaning against a large bench with his arms crossed. As Stiles and the others drew closer to him, he began to glow again. Stiles checked his hands and glanced at Erica to confirm that they were both glowing too. Seeing as he and Erica had been fine before walking into the apartment, Stiles had to conclude that it only happened when all three of them were together and not just any random pair of them.

"Are you here to explain this?" Derek asked, holding up his arm.

"Yeah." Stiles nodded and swallowed nervously.

"Calm down, Stiles." Peter's voice came from the side and Stiles turned to watch as the man descended a spiral staircase towards them. "I've already told them everything they need to know."

Stiles stared at him. "Really?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "I should've known you were a Guide. The way you helped Scott through those turbulent days after the bite, the way you were so worried about Lydia and even about Jackson, a boy you couldn't stand. It's so obvious in hindsight."

"Is it true? What Peter said?" Erica asked. She was standing pretty close to him and Stiles couldn't help leaning towards her a little. "We're some kind of soul mates?"

He nodded. "My dad told me that the glowing thing was part of the soul bond and then he and Deaton showed me a book which talked about a soul bond between _three_ people instead of two."

"A Triad," Peter interjected. 

"Yeah, that," Stiles said. "We're bonded because we're needed to protect the town...apparently."

Derek was still scowling and Stiles shuffled his feet awkwardly, staring at the floor. Erica huffed and grabbed his hand then Stiles gasped as sparks of electricity shot through him at the contact. His eyes flew to hers and she looked just as surprised. 

"Everyone get out," Derek suddenly said and when Stiles turned to him, he had straightened and was now watching Stiles and Erica with heated eyes. 

"Oh god," Stiles whispered when that look lit something low in his belly.

The others hadn't even made it to the elevator before Erica dragged Stiles into a kiss which made his toes curl. He vaguely heard Peter telling Isaac and Boyd they could stay at his place ' _just get out_ ' but most of his attention was on the way Erica's tongue slid against his own and the fact that she tasted like she'd recently eaten candy.

There was a low growl behind him before hands gripped his waist and he was pulled back against a hard body. Erica whined in protest at the movement and pressed closer to Stiles' front while Derek licked a stripe up the side of Stiles' neck. Stiles groaned and tilted his head for more without breaking the kiss.

There was a distant chant of ' _close, close, damn it close_ ' followed by the rumble of the elevator moving away. 

With a final playful bite to Stiles' lower lip, Erica pulled back and Stiles could see that her eyes were so dark they were almost black as she stared at him and Derek. Derek leaned over Stiles' shoulder and pulled her into a kiss of their own while Stiles watched, incredibly turned on by the display. 

"Bed. Now," Derek said when they broke apart and Stiles found himself being herded across the room to an alcove he hadn't noticed. 

They fell onto the bed in a tangle of limbs before Stiles was rolled onto his back, staring up at Derek who looked like he wanted to eat him whole.

Derek's kiss was different from Erica's, more forceful and more friction from his stubble, but it was no less devastating and Stiles couldn't stop the small noises he was making. His hands scrabbled at Derek's wife-beater, desperate to feel skin and finally Derek pulled away and removed the offending item himself. Stiles ran his hands across Derek's stomach and Erica leaned forward to lick across Derek's chest which seemed like a pretty good idea so Stiles sat up to do the same. 

Derek made a choking sound. "Christ...you two..."

He pulled Erica up to kiss her some more and Stiles took the opportunity to push Erica's t-shirt up and began kissing along her spine. He had no idea what he was doing but she seemed to be enjoying it. The words 'follow your instincts' echoed in his mind before he ruthlessly pushed that away because he really didn't need to hear his dad's voice while he was doing this, no matter how helpful the advice was.

A hand grabbed him around the top of his arm and he was pulled up onto his knees where Derek and Erica quickly divested him of his shirts. Stiles cried out when Derek leaned forward and began licking and sucking at one of his nipples while his hand toyed with the other. He turned his head to find that Erica had removed her own top and was stroking a hand back and fore across the skin above her bra as she watched them. Stiles could see her nipples straining against the bright red lace and before he thought about what he was doing, he pulled her closer and ducked his head to mouth at them through the material. She shuddered against him and threw her head back with a throaty moan. 

Stiles felt hands at his waistband as Derek deftly undid his jeans before sliding a hand beneath them and his boxers to take Stiles in a firm grip.

"Oh, holy fuck!" Stiles groaned and Erica grinned at him as she pushed him back until he was sprawled on the bed.

"I hope so," she said then helped Derek to completely remove the rest of Stiles' clothes before they finished undressing each other.

Stiles stared, dazed, as their bodies were revealed to him with biting kisses and lingering caresses and completely forgot to feel self conscious about his own naked state. Especially when they both turned to look at him with matching expressions of hunger. Erica crawled onto the bed until she was kneeling over him and leaned down to give him another deep kiss. She pulled his hands to her breasts and he ran his fingers over her nipples, smiling in to the kiss when that caused her to shiver.

"Harder," she breathed against his mouth. "I need...oh god, that's right" she said when he pinched them experimentally and then she rewarded him with more kissing.

Suddenly, he felt Derek's hand gripping him again and threw his head back at the same time as Erica gasped, "Derek!"

He looked over Erica's shoulder to see Derek between his legs and behind Erica and realised that he was touching them both at the same time. Stiles' hips rocked up into the rhythm that Derek was creating while Erica rocked back and the awestruck expression on Derek's face as he watched the effect he was having on the both of them was one that Stiles didn't think he'd ever forget.

Stiles let out a whine when Derek's hand moved away and heard Erica doing the same but knew why he'd backed off. Stiles could feel it; the sudden knowledge that for the soul bond to be completed, it couldn't be with hands or mouths. They had to be inside each other, body and soul. 

Stiles rolled until he was above Erica and she laughed, stroking a hand down the side of his face. He felt Derek press up behind him, slowly licking his way up Stiles' spine. 

"Are you sure?" he asked as he nuzzled Stiles' neck.

"God, yes!" Stiles said eagerly and Derek chuckled. it wasn't a noise that Stiles had heard before but he could get used to it, especially when it vibrated against his skin like that.

There was cold air against Stiles' back for a moment before Derek returned, dropping lotion and a couple of condoms on the bed next to them. Stiles closed his eyes against the fresh wave of arousal that crashed over him. 

Erica's hand was back on his face and when he opened his eyes again, he could see concern warring with the desire in hers.

"You okay?" she asked quietly and Stiles laughed incredulously.

"I'm about to lose my virginity in the most awesome and spectacular way _ever_. Are you actually asking me that?"

She gave him a blinding smile and he was helpless to stop himself falling forward to taste it. He groaned against her as Derek slowly pushed a slick finger into him, the sensation of it both welcome and not. Erica distracted him by biting at his mouth and dragging one of his hands between her legs, showing him exactly how he should touch her. He quickly picked up the rhythm of what she wanted and she started to moan appreciatively. His moans quickly joined hers when she abandoned his hand to grab hold of him instead, teasing him with too light touches. By the time Derek added another finger and then another, Stiles was rocking back into him babbling incoherently about how good everything was.

"Should have known that you'd be just as noisy in bed," Derek commented as he removed his fingers but his voice was rough, strained, and Stiles knew that he was just as effected by all of this as he and Erica were. 

There was the sound of a condom wrapper being ripped open behind him and Erica grabbed the other one, quickly opening it and rolling it onto Stiles. She wrapped her legs around Stiles waist and he grabbed onto her hips as he pressed forward slowly. The feeling of that tight, wet heat surrounding him had Stiles struggling to keep control over himself before this was over far quicker than anyone wanted. When he was fully seated within her, he dropped his head to his shoulder and just breathed while she gently stroked her hands through his sweat soaked hair. 

"Okay." He finally panted and glanced over his shoulder to look at Derek, giving him a nod to show that he was ready.

He didn't know what he'd been expecting when Derek pushed into him; pain probably and there was definitely some of that but mainly he just felt surrounded by the pair of them. Cherished and loved. Which was when Stiles realised that the glow around them had suddenly grown far brighter as the soul bond moved into place. 

"You both look so beautiful," Erica said, her voice full of awe as she stared up at them.

"Pot...kettle...black..." Stiles groaned as Derek pushed fully into him.

"He means...that you should see yourself," Derek told her and he reached down to run a shaky hand through the mass of blonde curls spilling over the pillow. 

That was exactly what Stiles had meant but he couldn't be blamed if his brain had turned to mush at that particular moment in time. "Less talking...more moving."

Derek gave that chuckle again before pulling his hips back a little and pushing back into Stiles which then pushed Stiles further into Erica. 

"Oh fuck..." Stiles gasped. "Do that again."

Derek obliged, quickly setting up a pace that had all three of them groaning and cursing as the pleasure coiled through them. The weird thing was, Stiles could actually feel _their_ pleasure as well as his own like they were caught in some sort of feedback loop. It was the most incredible sensation he'd ever had and he knew that the others were feeling it too.

"Stiles...please...Derek..." Erica cried as she writhed beneath them and Derek growled in response which really shouldn't have turned Stiles on as much as it did but, as soon as he heard it, he could feel the pleasure building at the base of his spine.

Derek's thrusts grew more and more erratic while Erica's cries grew louder and suddenly the bond snapped into place, blazing and bright and almost blinding. Stiles yelled as it pushed him over the edge and he could hear the echoing noises from his lovers.

"Wow," Stiles finally panted, his face squashed against Erica's shoulder. "That was..."

"...The fuck of the century," Erica finished and Stiles snorted. She may be his soul mate, or what have you, now but she was definitely still Erica.

He made a small sound of protest when Derek withdrew from him but Stiles quickly followed suit and, after taking care of the condom, snuggled into Erica's side. Derek climbed back onto the bed on the other side of her and pulled the covers over them all. Stiles just about managed to fish his phone out of his jeans and shoot a text to his dad, letting him know where he was, before he joined Erica and Derek in a well earned sleep. 

It was still dark when Stiles woke up. Erica was still fast asleep in his arms but the other side of the bed was empty. Stiles blinked groggily and lifted his head, spotting a light on at the desk and Derek working on something. Erica grumbled a little when Stiles slid out from under her but settled down when Stiles dropped a small kiss on her forehead. He pulled on his jeans and grabbed his phone from the bedside table before padding across the room. 

There was a text from his dad: ' _DENIAL! But invite them both to dinner. I'll see you at lunch xx_ ' which made Stiles chuckle quietly. Derek looked at him questioningly.

"My dad's burying his head in the sand about me sleeping over," Stiles explained quietly. "But he does want you and Erica to come to dinner."

Derek's eyebrows went up. "Do I need to worry about getting shot?"

"Only if you tell him exactly what we did earlier." Stiles grinned, still on a high from that.

Derek nodded. "No giving the town sheriff the details of how I screwed his underage son into the mattress, got it."

Stiles' mouth fell open. "Did you just make a joke?"

"I've no idea what you're talking about," Derek said, but there was a sparkle in his eyes that Stiles had never seen before. 

Stiles laughed and then walked around to Derek's side of the desk. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out what the Alphas are going to do next," Derek told him. 

"Well, my dad and Deaton figured out what they were going to do _first_. You know, before you guys showed up and ruined their plans," Stiles said and pulled out his phone to show Derek the photos he'd taken of the bank blueprint and his dad's notes.

"Jesus," Derek breathed after Stiles had finished outlining the plan. "That's...impressively well thought out. It's a good thing that they messed up and kidnapped the son of a druid."

Stiles looked at him in surprise. "You know about my dad?"

"We were working together to find you guys," Derek pointed out. "I saw him using magic and he explained...after he stopped yelling about the fact I dragged his human kid into werewolf affairs."

Stiles face palmed at that. "Sorry. I've told him the whole story now but still, he should've known me well enough to know that I dragged my own damn self into werewolf affairs."

"He was worried about you," Derek told him, dragging Stiles hand away from his face and wrapping his arms around him from behind. "He needed someone to yell at, I just happened to be the nearest target."

Stiles leaned back against him with a sigh. "I hate that I scared him like that. Also, not much with the human kid anymore." Derek stiffened and Stiles could feel his surprise through the bond, which was pretty cool. "Turns out that the Alphas didn't just kidnap the _son_ of a druid."

He lifted a hand and sent the lamp sliding from one side of the table to the other without touching it. He grinned to himself; yeah, that was never getting old.

"That's why your scent changed?" Derek asked. "I thought that you were just immune, like Lydia."

"I don't actually think Lydia _is_ immune," Stiles replied and then went on to explain how the bite lifted the spell on him and his dad and what Deucalion had said when the bite didn't change him. He also filled in the gaps in what his dad had told Derek because it quickly became clear that his dad had only given the barest of outlines.

"Do you think your father would mind if me and Erica ask him for help with the whole Sentinel thing?" Derek asked when Stiles finished. "I only became one when I turned into an Alpha and I didn't even notice until I bit Erica and she turned out to be the same as me. I thought it was the Alpha thing that made my senses so much stronger than they used to be."

Derek looked so uncomfortable as he admitted to the weakness that Stiles had to give him a kiss. "Of course, he'll help you both. You _are_ part of his family now."

Derek gave a sharp inhale at that and Stiles' heart broke at the tangle of emotions he could feel through the bond. He took Derek's hands and led him back to the bed where Erica was already awake and had obviously been listening to them. Between the two of them they manoeuvred Derek to lie between them and then offered him comfort while he worked through the idea of suddenly having a proper family again.

* * * * * *

Stiles was home a lot earlier than noon, thanks to the fact that he had to get up and help Derek persuade a grumbling Erica to go to school. She kept insisting that she deserved time off to enjoy her _honeymoon_ but she'd already skipped too many days being a badass werewolf, not to mention the sick days from before the bite, and she was in danger of going on academic probation despite her good grades. Still, it took a promise from Stiles and Derek not to have any fun without her and Stiles pointing out that she could lord it over Isaac and Boyd with her new bond with their Alpha before she'd actually leave.

He did get her to swear not to tell Scott yet, he wanted to tell him himself.

His dad pulled him into a hug when he walked through the door, with a muttered 'congratulations, son'. Then he pointed a finger at him and said, "No grandpups before you've graduated from college!"

They had breakfast and then went over all the spells that Stiles had learned the day before. Deaton showed up with lunch and several large boxes of books and weird herbs. They turned out to be items that the druids had confiscated from the Stilinski household when the spell was cast on them.

Stiles' dad picked up an old leather bound journal with reverence before shooting Deaton a look. "How did you get these so quickly? It's almost as though you knew the spell would break."

Deaton chuckled. "Lets just say that I began preparing for such an eventuality after Scott was bitten and it was clear that Stiles wasn't going to stay out of it."

His dad snorted and Stiles pretended to be offended and it was like any ordinary lunch; just with added magic and veterinarians. 

After lunch, Deaton gave Stiles a crash course in magical aids; the herbs, flowers and minerals that could be used in conjunction with his own magic. It was all pretty fascinating and Stiles became so absorbed that he didn't realise that his dad had left until he got up to refill his coffee and blinked at the empty chair in surprise.

"He said he was going to pick up groceries for dinner while you were too distracted to go with him. Something about 'no damn rabbit food'," Deaton told him with a chuckle. "So, Derek and Erica are joining you for dinner?"

Stiles blushed at the look Deaton gave him. "That's the plan."

"You completed the bond then?"

"Last night." Stiles nodded. "It sort of hit us out of nowhere."

Deaton smiled. "Good. And how's the headache?"

Stiles blinked at him. "How did you...?"

"You're a Guide, Stiles. You unconsciously pick up on other people's emotions; that takes it's toll," Deaton said. "It's one of the reasons why having a bond is so important. The bond helps to shield a Guide's mind from being bombarded by those emotions and it helps a Sentinel find balance in their heightened senses."

Stiles nodded thoughtfully. "So that's why dad didn't manage to heal the headache. And why it's gone now."

"It's gone? Completely?" Deaton looked surprised. "I expected the bond to lessen it but usually a Guide has to train to block _everything_."

"Huh." Stiles frowned. "Maybe the bond is stronger in a Triad?"

"Maybe," Deaton allowed. "It's certainly interesting though."

They went back to Stiles' training until Deaton had to leave for an appointment at the clinic. His dad wasn't back yet and it was almost time for school to let out so Stiles left a note and then went to pick Erica up just because he could do that kind of stuff now. He pulled up outside the school and any nerves that he might be overstepping their boundaries disappeared when Erica bounced towards the jeep with a huge grin on her face. She was followed by Isaac and Boyd and Stiles had to laugh at the long suffering expressions they wore; it looked like she'd taken the 'lord it' suggestion to heart.

The three of them climbed into the jeep and Stiles was about to pull away when he spotted Scott watching them with a slightly sulky expression. Stiles rolled his eyes and made a 'come on, then' gesture with his hands, chuckling at the speed with which Scott ran over to them. Then while Scott was busy climbing into the jeep too, Stiles heard Lydia's voice too.

"Oh, are we having an outing? Don't worry, me and Jackson will follow in his car."

Stiles opened his mouth to make up an excuse when Lydia busted out her raised eyebrow of doom. He sighed, Jackson _was_ a werewolf now and Derek had to bring him into the pack whether he liked it or not. Not to mention, they owed Lydia after all the lying they'd done to her. 

He nodded at her. "Alright but you've got about five minutes before one of the teachers spots me and demands to know why I'm here if I'm not back in lessons yet."

Lydia was obviously taken aback that he'd agreed so easily but quickly recovered and smiled at him before going to find Jackson.

"What are you doing?" Erica asked. "Why are you letting them come with us?"

Stiles shrugged. "I'm making a tactical decision."

"So that we can keep an eye on Lydia?" Scott asked. "You know, until we figure out what she is?"

"Actually, I hadn't thought of that," Stiles admitted. "But, yeah, lets go with that explanation when Derek gets all growly."

Erica leaned over from the passenger seat and ran her hand along the inseam of Stiles' jeans. "She'd better keep her hands off you or she'll get to see how growly _I_ can get."

Stiles made a strangled noise and tried to move her hand to a more appropriate area, to no avail. Isaac and Boyd started snickering in the back, the traitors, while Scott cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"I guess that chat about the bond thing went better than you expected?" he said in a weird voice and when Stiles glanced at him in the rear view, his eyes were wide and he was looking everywhere but Erica's hand.

"Oh, man, you've no idea." Isaac groaned. "I'm never going to get that image out of my head."

"You watched?!" Scott yelped and Isaac and Boyd burst out laughing.

For once Stiles was sincerely grateful to hear Jackson's obnoxious beeping because that meant he could concentrate on driving to Derek's place and not on what Erica's continued teasing was doing to him. He was _not_ going to pop a boner in a jeep full of werewolves.

"Nah," Boyd was telling Scott. "Just saw some serious making out before we could get out of there."

"It was the strangest thing I've ever seen," Isaac said and when Stiles protested because him kissing a girl wasn't _that_ strange, he explained. "Not that. The fact that one minute everything was normal and the next the three of you were all over each other. It was like a switch got flipped and then you forgot we were even there."

"Oh, okay." Stiles nodded. "That was Erica's fault. She grabbed me first."

"Only because you looked so guilty and pitiful standing there," Erica said then smirked. "But if you really want to blame me for the completely mind blowing sex, I'll happily take it."

There were loud groans from the back and Stiles laughed when Erica winked at him. The laugh turned into a cry of pain when agony suddenly exploded in his abdomen. He slammed on the brakes and grabbed hold of his stomach.

"Shit! What happened?" Boyd pushed his way between the front seats. "Guys?"

Stiles could hear pained whimpers and saw that Erica was doubled up, her hands over her stomach too. That's when he realised that the pain wasn't his and, as quickly as that, he could feel it fading to a dull throb. 

Erica slumped back against the seat as the same thing obviously happened to her then she looked at Stiles with wide eyes.

"Shit!" he swore and immediately started the jeep again, pressing his foot down on the accelerator.

"Seriously, what the fuck is going on?" Isaac demanded.

"Derek's hurt," Erica said. "I... _we_ could feel it. It was like it was happening to us too."

"...okay, now they're saying that _Derek's_ hurt not them," Scott was saying and Stiles realised that he was on his phone and that he'd vaguely heard it ringing when he was doubled over. "I don't know, Lydia. I think we're heading to help Derek so just keep following us, okay?" 

Minutes later, Stiles skidded to a stop outside Derek's building and everyone jumped out. Erica bypassed the elevator and Stiles followed her to a stairway. The werewolves ran on ahead but it was only a couple of flights so Stiles arrived in time to see Erica punch Ennis hard enough to knock him off his feet. Of course it was the fucking Alphas. 

Stiles took in the scene in the loft quickly; Isaac, Jackson and Scott were battling with the Alpha twins while Erica and Boyd fought Ennis. But it was the sight of Derek on his hands and knees in front of Deucalion impaled on one end of a long pipe which Kali was holding that had Stiles seeing red. Before he even thought about it, he lifted his hand and sent a bolt a light towards Kali that actually threw her through the air to crash into the wall. He stared at his hand in shock; he'd never felt anything that powerful when he'd done magic before.

"Oh my god," Lydia whispered from behind him, staring at the fight with wide eyes.

He pulled Lydia to a nearby alcove. "Stay here and if you need any help just scream, okay?"

Once she nodded, he turned back to the room just in time to see Kali running at him. He shot another bolt at her and this time when she hit the wall she slumped into an unconscious heap on the floor. He ran towards Derek but came to a stop when Scott and Isaac slid across the floor in front of him, looking a little the worse for wear. Turning to the side, there was now a freaky looking giant where the twins had previously been and it was standing above an obviously injured Jackson.

"What the fuck?" Stiles asked.

"They joined together." Scott coughed and struggled to climb back to his feet.

The frankenwolf ran at Scott and Isaac, apparently unconcerned about Stiles, and Stiles quickly conjured a protective circle around his two friends which the giant then hit and bounced off. With a roar, it turned towards Stiles but Jackson suddenly leapt up and jumped on it's back, hacking at it's neck and shoulders with his claws.

Erica and Boyd appeared at Stiles' side and Stiles could see Ennis rolling about on the ground behind them, clutching at his groin. The giant managed to throw Jackson off and started towards Stiles again. 

Erica and Boyd started to move in front of him but Stiles stopped them and whispered as low as he could, "Close your eyes."

He waited until they both nodded, uttered a silent apology to the rest of the pack, then crouched and slammed his hand on the ground. The room filled with the brightest pure white light and when it faded, the giant had turned back into the twins both of whom were disorientated and staggering slightly. Erica and Boyd didn't give them time to recover, taking them down in a flurry of swipes and kicks.

Slow clapping echoed through the room and they all turned to look at Deucalion. 

"Impressive," he told them as he got up from his seat. Erica growled and took a step towards him but he held up a hand. "Now, now we didn't come here to kill anyone. We just wanted a little talk with Derek."

"A talk?" Stiles said angrily. "You shoved a metal pipe through his stomach."

"And he's already healing from it." Deucalion waved a hand at the general area next to him where Derek had already removed the pipe and was sitting back against the desk. "No real harm done and now that the chat is over, we'll be on our merry way."

He clicked his fingers and Ennis staggered to his feet before limping across the room to pick up Kali who he threw over his shoulder. The twins also stood up although Stiles was gratified to see that they had to help each other up. 

"Derek?" Boyd questioned without taking his eyes off the group of Alphas.

"Let them go," Derek said and Deucalion grinned.

One of the twins took his arm and led him across the room but they stopped briefly besides Stiles.

"I guess we know what you are now, Stiles," Deucalion said to him. "As I said, very impressive."

As soon as the Alphas were gone, Erica and Stiles sprinted to Derek. They both dropped to their knees besides him and checked his stomach, which was already almost healed, before frantically running their hands over him, looking for other injuries.

"I'm okay," Derek told them and then, when they paid that no attention, he grabbed their hands. "Really, I'm okay."

Stiles nodded and slumped back onto his heels while Erica buried her head in Derek's neck and wrapped her arms around him.

"How did you know?" Derek asked, reaching out to grab hold of Stiles and drag him closer.

"We felt it," Erica murmured. "There was this sudden pain and we just knew."

"Okay, does someone want to explain what the fuck just happened?" Jackson was standing in the middle of the room, slightly slumped against Lydia. He gestured at the huddle on the floor with his other hand. "Also, _what_ is going on there?"

"Those were the Alphas that kidnapped me, Erica and Stiles," Boyd told him. "These three have a soul bond which meant that Erica and Stiles could feel it when Derek got hurt. I've got no fucking clue about those twins though; that was the freakiest thing I've ever seen."

"A soul bond?" Lydia asked. "Like soul mates?"

"Sort of." Stiles nodded. "But more complicated...like everything in this town is."

Lydia tilted her head and considered them. "So, you're together? All three of you are in a relationship?"

Jackson spluttered. "What? Them and _him_?" 

He pointed at Stiles and Erica instantly growled while Derek's eyes flashed red and he pulled Stiles closer.

"Yes, him," he growled before nuzzling Stiles' neck while Erica reached across and stroked a possessive hand down his arm.

Jackson held his hands up defensively but he looked flabbergasted and Stiles couldn't help but poke his tongue out at him.

Lydia watched all of this with an amused expression while Boyd just shook his head and got back to business.

"Why were they here?" he asked Derek. "That didn't look like just a cozy chat."

Derek frowned. "Deucalion wants me to join his pack."

"No way!" all the Betas yelled at once.

"Of course I said no," Derek assured them, "but he kept giving me the hard sell. How much more powerful I'd be and all of that bullshit. He also..." He swallowed hard. "He also talked about my mother but that's when you showed up so I don't know why that was relevant."

Stiles immediately snuggled closer and stroked the back of Derek's neck soothingly as the pain of thinking about his family came through the bond. Erica did the same and the three of them lost themselves in comforting each other.

"Uh...guys?" Scott said suddenly and they all turned to look at him and Isaac. Both of whom were still stuck in the protective circle. "A little help?"

Stiles blinked in surprise, unable to quite believe that he'd forgotten about them then he smirked and asked the room in general. "So...who wants to take advantage of this opportunity?"

He laughed as everyone outside the circle raised their hand.

* * * * * *

Obviously they were a bit late getting to dinner but Stiles had phoned his dad to let him know so he wasn't overly upset with them. He _was_ upset that Stiles hadn't called for backup when he knew Derek was in trouble and instead had run headlong into a battle with the werewolves who had tried to kill him a few days earlier. The thing was, it actually hadn't even occurred to Stiles to do that. He'd just been focussed on getting to Derek like some sort of weird tunnel vision.

His dad had run his hand over his face when Stiles tried to explain that and sighed. "Okay, I get it. I got that way over your mother sometimes, just...try to remember next time that your dad's pretty badass and call me?"

The tension dissipated after that and they settled down to eat. It freaked Stiles out to hear Derek calling his dad 'sir' and being all polite and respectful but that got destroyed when the subject of baseball entered the conversation. It was yet more proof that Giants and Yankees fans _do not_ mix well. Stiles snorted into his drink when Derek launched into a passionate argument for why Jeter was the greatest player currently in the game while his dad continuously rolled his eyes. But when Erica wrapped a curl around her finger and asked, far too innocently, what a shortstop was, Stiles actually fell off his chair laughing at the twin expressions of horror on Derek and his dad's faces.

"Evil! So evil!" Stiles chortled as a smirking Erica helped him off the floor.

"Just for that you have to sit through a game with us on Sunday." His dad pointed a finger at Erica and she laughed.

"Would this be a good time to tell you that the Giants rock?" she tried.

"It would." His dad nodded. "But you're not getting out of it that easily. Derek?"

"I think you're being lenient. I'd have gone with two games," Derek said with a hint of a smile playing around his mouth.

Stiles had already passed along Derek's request for help with his and Erica's Sentinel abilities so that's what the discussion turned to over dessert. Because the whole heightened senses thing came part and parcel with being a werewolf it sounded as though Derek and Erica had managed to get a hold on that quicker than non-werewolf Sentinels would. Even so, they had occasionally been struggling with something his dad called 'zone outs', where they would be concentrating so hard on using one of their senses that they would get lost in it. 

Stiles' dad nodded. "I remember one time, back before I met Claudia, when I zoned out just watching the trees. I was sitting on the porch of my mother's house looking out at the woods, then just began noticing the individual leaves then even closer to the veins on the leaves and the next thing I know, it's two hours later and my mother's yelling at me to snap out of it."

"Yeah, it's just like that," Erica said. "I did it when I was listening to music about two weeks ago. I lost something like three hours."

"It'll be easier now that you have a Guide," his dad said. "Stiles will be able to pull you back from a zone out pretty quickly because you'll automatically be attuned to him. You know the sound of his heartbeat, his voice, the way he smells; it's especially pungent after lacrosse practise, I knew that even before I got my senses back."

"Hey!" Stiles glared at him. "Just for that, you're not getting any more pie!"

"My point is," his dad continued with a chuckle. "If you get lost looking at something, Stiles' voice will be able to distract you from it and bring you back. Or if it's a sound, his touch will do the same thing. He'll be able to get you to focus on a different sense from the one you're using and stop the zone out."

"What if Stiles isn't there?" Derek asked.

"Well the bond will give you a measure of balance in itself; you'll find that the zone outs will happen a lot less from here on out," his dad replied. "But if there's an occasion where you know that you're in danger of it make sure that you've got something to distract yourself."

Derek nodded. "If I'm trying to listen in to something particular, I should keep a pair of Stiles' sweaty socks on hand so that they keep interfering with my hearing."

"Alright, seriously? You both try running suicides for Coach and see if you still smell like daisies," Stiles huffed.

Derek smirked at him but hooked his foot around Stiles' ankle beneath the table in apology. 

Stiles melted a little at that because this was _Derek_. And sure, they'd had amazing sex and some frantic 'are you really okay? you were _freaking impaled_!' touching but the small affectionate gesture, given so easily, was somehow a bigger deal coming from him.

That still didn't stop Stiles from pointing a finger at him and saying, "No more pie for you either."

The genuine laugh that Derek gave at that was amazing and Stiles made a promise to himself to try and get the Alpha to laugh like that at least once a day.

After dinner, Stiles began to feel a little antsy. It was completely ridiculous because he knew he'd see them the next day but he didn't want Erica and Derek to leave. He hated the idea of sleeping alone all of a sudden, hated the idea of them being on the other side of town from him. And, judging from the increasing amount of accidental brushing up against him, the other two were feeling the same way.

Finally his dad gave Stiles a knowing look. "If you're staying at Derek's tonight, don't forget to pack whatever books you need for school tomorrow."

"Really?" Stiles asked hopefully.

"Yes, really." His dad rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to make you sleep in different houses while the bond's still so new."

Stiles hugged him. "You're the best, dad!" he called over his shoulder as he ran up the stairs to gather his stuff.

"And don't you forget it!" his dad called back.

The thing was, despite what Stiles' dad thought they were going to do (or was trying hard _not_ to think about what he thought they were doing to do), it wasn't even about the sex. Stiles was just as happy being close to his Sentinels; to get to sleep all tangled up with them and know that they were there. That was probably the reason that he didn't even think of protesting when they got back to the loft and found Isaac and Boyd watching TV there. Instead he just dumped his bag on the floor and asked what they were watching. After all, it was _their_ den. A den that had been invaded that day by another pack who had hurt their Alpha. Stiles wasn't about to ask them to leave just so he could get some. 

Erica pushed him down on the other sofa before curling up against him and they all watched Boyd's Stargate DVDs. Stiles was over the moon to discover someone else who shared his love of all things chevron and the fact that it was Boyd was just the icing on the cake. 

About two episodes in Stiles suddenly jerked upright and gaped at Boyd. "You..." He pointed a finger. "You've been totally modelling yourself after Teal'c! The giant biceps, the menacing glowers, the way you don't say much so that when you do say something it sounds all wise and thoughtful...oh my god, the shaved head! You want to _be_ him!"

Boyd looked at him and with no change in his expression except to raise one eyebrow, replied, "Indeed."

Stiles dislodged Erica and almost knocked her on her ass in his rush to hug the other man. 

Erica huffed and then, when the hugging went on for longer than five minutes, ended up just picking Stiles up off Boyd and dragging him back to their sofa to be her Stiles!pillow again. At some point Derek stopped doing his research over the by the desk and joined them; lifting Erica's feet to slide under her and resting his arm along the back of the sofa so that he could stroke his fingers through Stiles' hair while the rest of them commented on and bickered over the show they were watching. 

Stiles fell asleep half way through an episode and woke up long enough to stagger to the bed and collapse onto it. He rolled over and made grabby hands until Derek and Erica curled up next to him then immediately fell back to sleep with the smell of Erica's shampoo in his nose and the feel of Derek's arm wrapping around them both.

* * * * * *

He gave the three betas a ride to school the next morning, still talking about Stargate while Boyd enthusiastically nodded and added his own comments.

Erica shrugged. "I don't know. It's pretty good but it's no Doctor Who, is it?"

"Oh god!" Isaac muttered and Stiles could see him covering his face with his hand.

Stiles blinked at her. "You like Doctor Who?" he asked at the same time as Isaac and Boyd jointly yelled:

"Don't!"

Erica's eyes took on a strange gleam before she launched into the most passionate speech about a TV show that Stiles had ever heard and he'd _given_ a lot of those types of speeches himself. She wasn't even sticking to new Who, she was talking about the old Doctor Who as well and using names like Ace and Adric and Jamie while the other two groaned in the back of the jeep. They'd obviously been on the end of this speech before.

When they parked in front of the school, Stiles stared at her for a long moment before launching himself across the seat and kissing her with everything he had.

"Jesus Christ, I have the coolest girlfriend in the world!" he said when he finally pulled back. "Have you any idea how hot that was?"

The smile that Erica gave him was breathtaking. It wasn't the slightly terrifying one with too much teeth that she'd been throwing around since she'd been bitten but a soft and almost shy smile that reminded him of the old Erica.

"Please tell me that we don't have to watch the PDAs all the time now?" Isaac grumbled but when Stiles turned to look, both Isaac and Boyd were smiling at him in approval. Apparently he'd just passed some Erica test as far as they were concerned.

Erica recovered and sent Isaac a smirk. "Well, you don't _have_ to watch."

They met up with Scott by the bicycle racks and headed into the school. Stiles was taken aback by the fact that everyone was looking at him and whispering. He knew that his dad, and probably Chris, had fudged the story a little so that people thought that Gerard had snapped and locked Stiles, Erica and Boyd up for the full time that they'd been missing and that Gerard had then escaped before he could be caught. He should have expected that being kidnapped by their former principal would be huge news to the students but he'd been distracted by other things and now felt completely wrong footed. 

"Wow, you guys didn't get this much attention," Isaac muttered to Erica and Boyd.

"We're not the sheriff's son," Boyd pointed out.

"Plus we came straight back to school obviously unharmed," Erica said. "They've had a couple of days to think up horrific injuries for Stiles. Most of which are probably true but it just doesn't look like it anymore."

"Please! You think this is bad? Try coming back to school after spending a couple of days running around naked in the woods." Lydia appeared next to them. She plastered a smile on her face and murmured to Stiles, "Take a deep breath, hold your head up and show them that you don't give a shit about the staring, Stilinski."

She then proceeded to walk down the corridor like a runway model.

"I guess, that's one way to do it," Boyd said.

Stiles hummed. "I'm pretty sure I'd fall on my face if I tried to walk like that."

"I don't think your legs could take those heels anyway," Scott told him and Stiles elbowed him in the side.

They caught up with Lydia by the lockers. Jackson was already there and was staring back the way they came.

"Uh...you losers may want to turn around," he said, nodding his head behind them. "Because this is not good."

They all turned as one and then stared as the Alpha twins walked through the school as if they belonged there. They both had backpacks slung over their shoulders and looked for all the world like new transfer students.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Isaac exclaimed. "What are they doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on us probably," Stiles replied. 

The twins shot the group identical smirks as they walked past them, heading towards the school office. At least their appearance had taken the attention off Stiles. Everyone was now speculating on the new students and why they'd joined the school so close to the end of the year.

"Maybe we should keep an eye on them too," Scott suggested. "Between us, we're bound to have all their classes covered."

Everyone agreed and, as the bell went, there was a quick exchange of numbers for those who didn't already have them on the understanding that whoever had a class with them would text all the others to let them know. They arranged to meet up at lunch then separated to go to their first class.

By the time lacrosse practise rolled around they knew the twins names, Ethan and Aiden, but that was pretty much it. They seemed to be keeping to themselves and not really mixing with the other students.

"They don't even seem to be paying much attention to us," Scott complained as he pulled his jersey on. "I just don't understand what kind of game they're playing."

"Well, judging from their previous plan, we already know the Alphas are patient," Stiles pointed out. "We just need to keep watching them."

"Stilinski!"

Stiles jumped and turned to look at the coach who was glaring at him. "Coach?"

"You did well at the game Friday," Finstock told him, "so I decided to give you a chance to practise as first line in preparation for _maybe_ actually being first line next year."

"Really?" Stiles asked excitedly.

"But then you skipped out on every practise so far this week so you're benched. You don't show up to practise, you don't get to play." Finstock nodded and turned away.

"Uh, Coach?" Danny stepped forward and quietly muttered something to Finstock.

"Kidnapped?" Finstock cried then looked back at Stiles who cringed. "Why don't you people tell me these things?"

"We did, Coach. Several times," Jackson told him and half the room murmured in agreement.

"Right, well. In light of this brand new information," Finstock said, completely ignoring Jackson's comment. "You're still benched, Stilinski. But this time for nicer...recuperation type of reasons."

Stiles jumped up. "I'm fine, Coach. Really. I can play, no problem."

"No. You're my guys and I'm not going to force anyone to play after a traumatic incident." Finstock paused. "Unless we're talking about an actual game. Then your leg better have fallen off if you don't want me to send you onto the field." With that Finstock walked out of the room muttering, "Kidnappings, fake deaths on the field...what the hell's wrong with these kids?"

"Sorry, dude." Scott gave Stiles a sympathetic look. "We'll practise over the summer, alright? We'll get you onto first line."

"Sounds like a plan," Isaac said, joining them. "Spend the summer playing against a few werewolves and you'll definitely be able to beat out the rest of the team when we come back to school."

"You know that I'm going to hold you to that," Stiles told him. "If I'm not first line in September, you both get the blame."

They walked out to the field and Stiles dropped into his usual spot on the bench. He raised his eyebrows when Boyd sat down next to him.

"Someone pointed out to Coach that I was kidnapped too," Boyd rolled his eyes.

Stiles snorted. "At least I've got company then. Although I like the way that Jackson still gets to play despite being pronounced dead last week."

They watched the practise, with Stiles occasionally yelling out encouragement or directions.

“Xander,” Boyd suddenly said.

“Huh?” Stiles looked at him.

“I’ve been thinking and if I’m Teal’c then you’re Xander,” Boyd told him. 

Stiles thought about that for a moment then shrugged. “I can live with that. Although, I’d say that I’m more Xander and Willow mixed.”

Boyd smiled and nodded. “What about the others?”

Stiles thought about that for a moment. “Scott’s Clark Kent...the Smallville version.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Boyd agreed with a chuckle. “Erica?”

They both looked at each other and at the same time said, “Faith.”

Stiles laughed. “How did I not know that you were this geeky, Boyd? I swear that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The two of them continued likening various people they knew to TV show characters and, before they knew it, practise was over and they were heading back to the locker room. Before they actually reached it though a hand grabbed Stiles by the wrist and pulled him around the corner.

“Hey,” Erica said. “You done with all this stupid boys’ stuff, yet? I’m bored.”

“I thought you went home.” Stiles frowned in confusion and then smirked. “Also, you’d better get used to this ‘stupid boys’ stuff’ because it’s now your girlfriendly duty to come to all the games and cheer for me. And, I want homemade signs. Signs done in sparkly pens with hearts drawn around my name.”

“We can put Derek on sign making duty,” she laughed. “I’ll get him some glitter next time I go shopping. And I did go home but I was bored there too; my parents have gone out somewhere.”

From what Erica had told Stiles about her home life, this was fairly typical. When he’d asked how she got away with sleeping at Derek’s, she explained that her parents were often away on business trips or out socialising with clients and were happy for her to stay with one of her ‘girlfriend’s’ so that she wasn’t in the house alone. Stiles thought it was sad that they were so out of touch with their own daughter’s life that they actually believed she had all these girlfriends. But it was even sadder that Erica was so matter of fact about it, obviously too used to it to see it as unusual. Stiles thanked God for his dad; not just because he made time for Stiles no matter how busy his job was but because he knew that his dad would unofficially adopt Erica and Derek now and that he and Stiles could give his Sentinels something they’d both been missing.

“So you’ve come to me for some entertainment.” Stiles nodded. “Can’t say that I blame you, I am very entertaining. It’s about time someone noticed.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” Erica said, taking a step closer to him. She put her arms over his shoulders and backed him up against the wall. “Want to send Derek a little something through the bond?”

Stiles laughed and grabbed her hips, pulling her closer. “Definitely Faith.”

He shook his head at the confused look she gave him and instead leaned in to kiss her. She instantly began kissing him back, fighting him to dominate the kiss by nibbling at his bottom lip and licking into his mouth while her hands scratched lightly through his hair. Stiles couldn’t stop a small moan escaping when Erica pressed tightly against him.

Suddenly the air was full of wolf whistles and cat calling as the lacrosse boys left the locker room. 

“What are you all hollering ab...Stilinksi?” Finstock pushed his way through the boys and came to a complete stop, staring at Stiles then Erica then back to Stiles again. "Okay, you know the rules; no making out on school property, even if school is over for the day. But unofficially?" Finstock eyed Erica again. "Way to go. I mean... _wow_! The rest of you, there's a lesson to be learned here. Take a good look..."

"Oh god," Stiles muttered, hiding his face in his hand.

"...you've got to keep chasing after what you want. Be it MVP or getting a girl that you, and everyone else who has a lick of sense, thinks is way out of your league. You keep chasing it and sometimes you can get it. Not you, Greenburg, you'll be lucky if you get a pig in a dress. Good job, Stilinski."

With that Finstock walked away looking extremely proud of himself for being such a good teacher to these kids. 

Stiles stared after him. "Me getting a hot girlfriend did just get used as a team motivational speech, didn't it? That wasn't some bizarre hallucination?"

"No, that definitely happened," Isaac told him, leaning on the wall next to him as most of the lacrosse team wandered away. 

"It is pretty unbelievable, Stilinski," Jackson put in. "And that's without adding Derek to the mix."

"Bite me!" Stiles flipped him the finger then quickly snatched his hand away when Jackson's eyes flashed blue. "Not literally, Jackson."

"So what's the plan tonight?" Scott asked. "Are we all hanging out?"

Erica shot him a look. "I thought you weren't part of this pack. I thought you decided that you were too good for us."

"I never said I was too good for you." Scott shifted uncomfortably. "And, anyway, that was before."

"Before what?" Boyd asked curiously.

Scott shrugged awkwardly. "Before I saw what Derek was like when you guys were missing. I thought that he was just using you to get the extra power but he was genuinely so worried. I don't think he or Stiles' dad got any sleep until we got you back. He really cares about you; I didn't get that before."

"To be fair, he wasn't really like that before," Isaac said. "I think he was trying not to care too much after everything that's happened to him. It's different now."

Stiles thought back to the night before, all of them relaxing and watching TV together. It hadn't even occurred to him that the experience was new to them but of course it was; it's not as though they could do more than train and sleep at the depot.

"It's better," Erica agreed, leaning back against Stiles' chest and Boyd nodded.

"Besides, it's not just about Derek anymore," Scott told them. "My loyalty is to Stiles and he's all magical and in your pack now so..."

Stiles grinned at him. "Where I go, you go? Aww, you really do love me, Scott McCall."

"Shut up," Scott grumbled but was he smiling back. 

"Oh god!" Jackson looked faintly nauseous. "Look, are we doing werewolf stuff tonight or not? If not, I've got a better class of people that I can hang with."

"You're just jealous of our epic bromance," Stiles shot back and Jackson rolled his eyes.

"No one's forcing you to spend time with us, werewolf stuff or not," Isaac pointed out and Jackson sniped back but Stiles stopped listening to what they were saying.

He'd suddenly been hit by a wave of emotion. It wasn't anywhere near as strong as when he got something through the bond from Derek and Erica, when it was so powerful that it almost felt like something he was feeling himself; this was more like getting hit by a strong breeze. He knew that as a Guide he was supposed to get emotions from other people but this was the first time he could actually feel it properly. Before bonding it had just been the weird buzzing of the headache he'd had, and he hadn't even known what that was until Deaton explained. 

Deaton had said that the spell on Stiles and his dad had messed up the speed of Stiles' Guide powers kicking in so maybe this was part of that. Maybe he'd been strong enough to bond but not at full strength so the shield that the bond offered had effectively blocked everything out until his powers got stronger. That would explain why the headache had disappeared completely.

What he was feeling now, he knew was coming from Jackson but it was all confused like a whole bunch of stuff mixed into one bitter tasting emotion. It took effort to untangle it but he managed to figure out hurt, loneliness and envy. There was a whole lot more but those were the overriding ones.

Stiles had only been joking about Jackson being jealous, mainly because Jackson had his own bromance with Danny but, then again, Danny didn't know about the werewolf stuff. Besides, Stiles got the feeling that Jackson was envious of them as a whole, not just Stiles and Scott, because he didn't have a link to the pack in the way that they did. He was on the outside looking in and because most of the time he was a douche of the highest order, he didn't know how to make it any different.

He watched Jackson continue bickering with the others as he tried to figure out how to fix it. He was pretty sure that Lydia had already been working on it, hence the way she'd demanded to join them the evening before, so he made a mental note to have a proper talk with her about it. For now though...he had been planning on going home to work on his magic some more on his own but he could let the others tag along. His garden was pretty big and backed onto the woods plus, it's not like there was much room for the wolves to train at the loft what with all the new furniture Derek seemed to have acquired.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to attract unwelcome attention if we keep lingering outside school like hoodlums," he said. "We should take it to my house."

Scott looked at him. "Your dad won't mind?"

"Nah," Stiles shook his head. "He's back at work tonight. Besides, he knows that when I bonded with Derek and Erica, he was getting the rest of the pack too."

Isaac and Boyd looked enormously pleased at that.

Stiles turned to Jackson. “You’ll pick up Lydia?”

He felt Erica stiffen against him slightly and tightened his arms around her waist to soothe her.

Jackson shrugged. “I guess.”

Stiles held in a sigh because, _seriously_ , Jackson could at least try and make this a little easier.

During the drive to his house, he tried to explain what he was doing without giving too much of what he’d picked up from Jackson away. Stiles may have been able to feel it but he wasn’t comfortable relaying that to others, like there should be some Guide/'whoever-he-was-reading' confidentiality.

“Come on, you know what Jackson’s like,” he said. “He’d rather chew off his own arm before admitting that he actually wants to be in the pack.”

“But you picked up that he does?” In the rearview, Scott wrinkled his nose in confusion.

“It’s hard to explain.” Stiles shrugged. “I just felt it.”

Boyd nodded. “Is that why you let him and Lydia come with us yesterday? You felt something from Lydia?”

Erica growled and Stiles reached over to tangle their hands together briefly, he was seriously beginning to regret being so vocal during his years of Lydia worship. He thought about what Boyd had asked.

“Possibly,” he allowed. “I just felt guilty for all that lying we did to her. But maybe I picked something up off her and didn’t realise what was happening.”

“Well, if you invite a dick to join the pack then you get to explain that to Derek,” Isaac told him.

Stiles shot him a look. “To be fair, Derek did bite that dick in the first place. Wait, that didn’t come out right...”

Erica snorted and all the boys in the back of the jeep started snickering.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “What I meant was...he created the problem and now he has to deal with it.”

“And you’re going to tell him that?” Scott asked. “ _Derek_?”

“Yes.” Stiles nodded. “But almost certainly with nicer words...and maybe some more sex to distract him.”

Jackson and Lydia showed up at Stiles’ house about twenty minutes after the rest of them had and Lydia flashed Stiles a grateful smile which surprised him so much that he couldn’t help smiling back. Across the garden Erica threw Scott so viciously that everyone winced at the sound he made impacting the ground. 

“Okay, that’s enough,” Stiles muttered and Lydia looked at him strangely.

Stiles ignored it, however, and walked across the garden to Erica who growled lowly at him with her eyes flashing gold. 

“Uh uh, you don’t get to growl at me, Reyes,” he told her and stepped closer. “I’m yours and Derek’s, okay? You don’t need to keep getting jealous of Lydia; she totally missed her chance to get all up on this Stilinski awesomeness. And as flattering as the possessive growling and inappropriate public groping is...I really am yours, no one else's. If the _mystical soul bond_ isn't enough to tell you that then just listen to my heartbeat right now.”

Erica growled again but this time it was far less pissed off, and what the hell had Stiles’ life become that he could now tell the difference in growls? He didn’t have much time to ponder that because Erica suddenly pounced, knocking him to the ground and enthusiastically kissing him.

“This is about you staking a claim in front of Lydia, isn’t it?” Stiles murmured to her when she pulled back enough to begin licking and nibbling a bruise into Stiles’ neck. “I don’t know why I bother.”

“You’re ours, I heard you.” Erica smiled at him and gave him another quick kiss then her smile turned wicked. “I’m just making sure everyone else knows that too.”

Stiles rolled his eyes but grinned back and pulled her down for more kissing because, well, because she was really good at it.

“Oh god,” Scott complained. “We don’t need to see that.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone in the garden stopped what they were doing and looked at Scott incredulously.

“What?” Scott asked defensively. “I was never that bad.”

“Seriously?” Jackson stared at Scott as if he’d never seen him before. “You really think that? McCall, you and Allison dry humped your way through school every single day. The only reason I knew that you’d split up was the distinct lack of friction noises from dark corners.”

“Oh, slam!” Erica laughed and Stiles privately admitted that was pretty impressive. Also accurate.

Scott crossed his arms and pouted, probably more over the mention of the ‘A’ word than because he took offense, until Isaac tackled him from the side. Then some weird game of werewolf tag began, involving unspoken rules that they all seemed to instinctively know; even Jackson. It was kind of fascinating.

“Reyes, are you going to rip my throat out if I talk to your boyfriend now?” Lydia called over, dryly.

Erica actually looked like she was thinking about that so Stiles gently tugged on a blonde curl.

“Yours,” he reminded her and she sighed.

“Fine.”

He rolled out from under her then shot her a wink before jogging over to join Lydia.

"Stilinski awesomeness?" she questioned when Stiles dropped into the seat next to hers.

Stiles pointed a finger at her. "Missed your chance."

She smiled at him. "Stiles, I'm an actual genius and you are my nearest competition for valedictorian. You can suddenly do magic and I...well, if the not turning from a werewolf bite holds the same for me as it did you then I'm _something_. And we run with a pack of werewolves; in fact, we're both in particularly intense relationships with a few of those werewolves. Just think how much more effective we can be as friends than if you were just my boytoy to walk all over."

"It really should disturb me that I know when you say 'effective' you're actually thinking in world dominance terms," Stiles told her, thinking that a genuine friendship with Lydia would be pretty cool.

"Well, I was going to suggest that we start with just the town," Lydia replied magnanimously and Stiles laughed. 

"How did you know that I was bitten?" he asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "Genius, remember? Now that I actually know what's been going on, I've made it my business to find out as much about werewolves as I can. You suddenly get powers and a soulbond after being held prisoner by Alpha werewolves so something had to have happened during your captivity. It made sense that one of them bit you as a way to get to Derek and Scott and that something else happened instead of it turning you."

Stiles nodded, impressed despite already knowing how smart she was, and filled her in on the whole spell thing and how the bite broke it.

"I knew the whole 'immunity' thing was crap," Lydia said when he'd finished. "It felt way too convenient. But I'm not a druid like you; that doesn't feel right."

"No, not a druid. But no one's been able to figure out what else it could be yet," Stiles told her.

She raised an eyebrow. "Not even Peter?"

Stiles looked at her in surprise. That hadn't even occurred to him; Peter had certainly known enough to be able to use what she was to come back from the dead.

"You've had other things on your mind." She patted his cheek although her eyes stared passed him, deep in thought. "I was _really_ hoping to avoid talking to him."

He couldn't really blame her for that; Peter had put her through hell. The guy had attacked her and left her close to dead before invading her mind for weeks, leading her to believe that she was going crazy. Stiles couldn't imagine how difficult it was going to be for her to face him again.

"We'll talk to him together," Stiles told her. "We have to get a start on our _effectiveness_ some time. I personally can't think of a better test subject."

Lydia gave him another smile but this one was a little shaky and it broke Stiles' heart to see it; even more to feel the strong rush of emotions flowing from her suddenly. He may not have the same feelings for her as he did before but she was still Lydia Martin and he hated to see her hurting. 

He reached over and took her hand. "Seriously, Lydia. He'll have to get through me to get to you and I've got a lot of new tricks up my sleeve."

She took a deep breath and visibly pulled herself back together, squeezing his hand in return. "The sooner we figure out what I am, the sooner I'll have tricks of my own."

"Then God help us all,” Stiles told her and she laughed.

“Anyway, I thought that perhaps we could compare research notes,” she said. “You’ve been looking into this stuff for longer than I have.”

Stiles went to grab his print outs and some of the books he’d collected on various supernatural creatures and he and Lydia went through them while the werewolves continued with their game of tag. Derek showed up after a couple of hours and glared at the way Stiles was sitting so close to Lydia which caused Stiles to shake his head in disbelief. But even Derek was forced to admit how useful it would be having Lydia around when she effortlessly translated a few of the Latin entries in the bestiary they’d stolen from the Argents.

Stiles grinned at that and also at the way Derek seamlessly added Jackson to the more organised training routine he put the werewolves through.

“You can’t just add people to the pack when you feel like it, Stiles,” Derek said later that night when Stiles pulled up outside the loft. “You’re not a werewolf and you’re definitely not the Alpha.”

“We all know who the Alpha is, Derek; you’ve told us often enough.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “And you added Jackson to the pack when you _bit him_. If the kanima stuff hadn’t happened, he’d already be with you guys.”

Derek glowered at him. “The kanima stuff _did_ happen and Jackson told me himself that he only wanted the power of being a werewolf and that he didn’t want to be in the pack.”

“You were going to let him do that?” Erica asked, surprised, as she followed the other two into the building.

“No; not until I could smell that the bite hadn’t worked properly,” Derek admitted. 

“Well, it’s worked properly now,” Stiles pointed out. “And you can’t deny that the guy has been through hell since he said that. He needs us...he needs you, Big Bad Alpha. Plus he threw himself into the fight last night _and_ he helped look for me, Erica and Boyd when we were missing.”

Derek huffed in a way that Stiles knew meant he'd won. 

"What about Lydia?" he growled instead.

"You said yourself that we can use her help with the research," Stiles reminded him. "And she and Jackson are kind of a package deal."

"We don't even know what she is," Erica said, pulling open the doors to the elevator. "Shouldn't we find that out before teaching her the secret clubhouse password?"

Stiles grinned at her in delight. "We should totally have a secret clubhouse password!"

"Stiles..." Derek sighed.

"Right, stay on topic." Stiles nodded. "We're going to talk to Peter about that because he definitely knows more than he's said considering the whole rising from the dead deal. But even if he doesn't, she's not going to be left in the dark again so it's better to have her with us than against us; she's kind of scary if you hadn't noticed."

"That's sort of my point," Erica muttered.

"Fine," Derek said then he fixed Stiles with a look. "But I meant what I said, you can't bring other people into the pack. I'll accept that there were extenuating circumstances this time, next time..."

"There won't be a next time," Stiles assured him. "Or, if there is, I'll talk to you about it first and you can do your Alpha thing, Big Guy."

Derek shook his head. "I thought having a Guide was supposed to make my life easier."

Stiles grinned. "It does. Just think of how much time I just saved you by pushing you to do something that we all know you'd have ended up doing anyway...just with a lot more scowling and dragging things out. "

Derek rolled his eyes and stepped out of the elevator into the loft. Then he grabbed Erica around the waist and spun her into the wall before kissing her deeply.

"I guess the talking part of the night is over," Stiles murmured as his eyes swept over his two lovers.

Isaac and Boyd had announced that they were spending the night at Boyd's place. He guessed it was probably a pre-emptive measure because Stiles knew that the looks between him, Erica and Derek had been lingering more and more as the evening went on. Stiles didn't think that anyone could blame him for that; they were both gorgeous and, as much as he hated to admit it, the possessiveness they kept showing over him had definitely hit some kink button he hadn't realised he had.

And it appeared that now he was discovering yet a new button he didn't know he'd had, though the pleasure he'd taken in watching Derek and Erica undress each other that first night should have given him a clue.

Erica looked at him over Derek's shoulder and held her hand out. Stiles hesitated then shook his head, holding her gaze as he deliberately took a step away and leaned one shoulder against the wall. Erica must have moved slightly or made a noise too low for Stiles to hear because Derek suddenly raised his head and sent Stiles a confused look. Stiles just slowly raked his eyes over the two of them, taking in every place they were moulded together, everywhere their hands clutched onto each other, then he gave Derek a smirk.

Derek's eyes grew wider as he realised just what Stiles wanted then he grinned and lifted Erica so that she had to wrap her legs around his waist.

"I think Stiles wants a show," he told her.

Stiles nodded at her raised eyebrow, not trusting himself to speak because he knew he'd descend into nervous babbling and he didn't want to break the mood.

"Well in that case, I'm sure we can give him a show that he'll never forget." Erica winked at Stiles then busied herself with pulling Derek's jacket off, throwing it across the loft.

Derek's t-shirt came off next then Erica lost herself in exploring his very impressive torso with her hands. Derek leaned forward and began kissing and licking her neck but he kept his gaze on Stiles the entire time and Stiles felt his pulse pick up at the sight of it. Holding Erica in place with one hand, Derek used his other hand to pull at Erica's top.

"Off," he growled. "Before I slice it off."

Erica actually looked like she was considering which method she'd prefer then she quickly yanked it over her head and threw it at Stiles, blowing him a kiss when he automatically caught it. Stiles huffed a laugh which turned into a choked moan as he watched Derek pull the cups of her bra low enough to reveal her breasts before he bent his head and took one into his mouth.

Erica threw her head back with a breathy cry and wriggled her hips against Derek's. This caused the already rucked up skirt she was wearing to ride up even higher. Without lifting his head, Derek moved a hand between her legs and ripped her panties off before doing something with his fingers that made her yell his name.

Stiles was openly panting for breath by this point. He'd had to catch himself from stepping forward to touch because this was the hottest thing he'd ever witnessed and he was determined to see it through to the end. His eyes skittered over his Sentinels, unsure what part he'd rather be watching and trying to take it all in at once. He was feeling their pleasure through the bond as well as his own so, as a result, was painfully hard and had to scramble to undo his jeans to give himself some relief.

Taking a deep breath, Stiles clenched his hands tightly into fists in order to hold back from touching himself and kept his focus on the pair in front of him.

Erica was writhing against the wall and letting out soft little cries that had Stiles groaning in response. Derek seemed to be struggling with the pocket of his jeans before he pulled out his wallet with a triumphant sound. He quickly removed a small foil square then threw the wallet over his shoulder, seemingly uncaring of where it landed, which Stiles would find hilarious in other circumstances. In a matter of moments, Derek had himself unzipped and the condom rolled on but then both he and Erica stopped moving and instead turned to Stiles. Stiles frowned and it took a second to realise that they were waiting for his permission.

"Oh my god!" he breathed as a fresh wave of arousal crashed over him at the realisation. "Yes! Yes, please...do it..."

He held his breath as he watched Derek slowly push into her, remembering just how that felt, and then moaned in unison with the other two. Erica scratched her nails down Derek's back, drawing a bit of blood and, like that was a signal, Derek picked up his pace. Stiles tightened his fists even more, probably drawing some blood of his own but he couldn't take his eyes of them long enough to check. 

The bright burst of euphoria through the bond when Erica shuddered and screamed out some garbled mash-up of his and Derek's names almost undid Stiles without a single touch, especially when Derek followed quickly behind but it wasn't quite enough. Stiles slumped against the wall, closing his eyes and _finally_ allowed himself to reach into his jeans only to find his hand batted away at the last moment. He opened his eyes then swallowed hard at the sight of Derek Hale, flushed and mussed and on his knees in front of him.

"Holy freaking crap!" Stiles just stared as Derek tugged Stiles' boxer briefs out of the way. "Derek, you don't have to do..."

Derek looked back up at him, his eyes hungry and fever bright. "Shut up, Stiles."

Then he took Stiles into his mouth and Stiles almost slid down the wall because his knees gave way with just how good that felt. Luckily Erica had appeared next to them, pinning Stiles in place so that she could kiss him. Although there wasn't much kissing on Stiles' end, he could only gasp and moan into her mouth as Derek proceeded to, quite literally, blow his mind.

He'd been on the edge for so long that it didn't take long before Stiles was tugging at Derek's hair in warning. Derek just looked up at him, smirked and then did something so deliciously sinful with his tongue that Stiles thunked his head painfully against the wall as his back arched.

When he managed to regain his faculties, Stiles found himself on the floor, leaning back against Erica with Derek slumped across his lap.

"I'm now going to get hard every time you tell me to shut up. I hope you're pleased with yourself." Stiles mock glared at Derek who actually did look very pleased with himself. "Also, why are we all still mostly dressed?"

Erica chuckled into his ear. "Because you turned out to be a kinky bastard for someone who only lost their v-card two nights ago."

Stiles flushed. "It's not my fault that you're both really good to look at."

Derek hummed contentedly then said in a matter of fact tone, "One day I'm going to fuck you in front of a mirror so that you can see just how good _you_ look when you're all turned on."

With a strangled groan, Stiles slapped Derek's shoulder. "You can't just say stuff like that."

"He's got a point though," Erica told Stiles who squirmed uncomfortably, not sure what to do with the compliments. "You looked amazing and the only reason Derek got to you first was because he tripped me up."

"What?" Stiles looked down at Derek who gave them both an unrepentant smile.

Erica reached around Stiles and poked Derek hard in the stomach. "It's my turn next, I don't care if you are the Alpha."

Stiles looked between the two people apparently fighting over who got to give Stiles a blow job and shook his head. "I think I've fallen into the Twilight Zone."

* * * * * *

Erica's turn actually happened a lot sooner than Stiles expected. Apparently she'd decided that it was a much nicer way to wake Stiles up than the alarm clock and, as Stiles groaned and clenched his fingers in golden curls, he couldn't find it in himself to disagree. He did reward her in the shower though with Derek pressed up behind him, giving him increasingly filthy instructions. It was a wonder that Stiles and Erica actually made it out of the loft in time to head to school.

"I'm not going to be able to concentrate in any of my lessons today," Stiles complained as he drove. "Who knew that Derek was so good at dirty talk? He's barely any good at talking talk."

Erica laughed. "I know, he's secretly such a bad...ha!" She looked at Stiles excitedly. "He's a Bad Wolf!"

"Oh, awesome!" Stiles held out a fist and she bumped it with her own. "That's the secret clubhouse password, right there."

They got so caught up in giggling over Derek's new nickname that neither of them paid any attention to the large SUV until it barrelled into the side of them. There was a terrible screeching noise as the jeep was forced across the asphalt and into the ditch at the side of the road. 

Stiles' head had impacted the driver's door window causing the world to spin around him. "Erica?"

She grabbed his hand but then both doors were pulled open and they were dragged out of the vehicle. There was a lot of growling and Stiles tried to blast whoever had hold of him but was punched really hard before he had a chance. This made his already foggy head even worse and he couldn't focus on anything until he was dropped unceremoniously on a patch of grass a little way into the woods. His hands were tied behind his back with the palms facing each other to prevent him from using his magic and someone grabbed him by the hair then something sharp was pressed against his throat; actually five sharp things.

"We don't want to hurt you, Stiles. We're just going to make young Erica an offer," a familiar voice said and Stiles blinked and struggled his way through his obvious concussion until he could focus on Deucalion. "Just watch and stay quiet, please."

He turned Stiles around, still keeping a grip on Stiles' throat, until he was facing out into the clearing. Erica was snarling and struggling in the grip of the twins while Ennis stood to one side smirking. As Stiles watched Ennis pulled on a pair of leather gloves before reaching into his pocket and removing a plastic baggy of purple powder.

"Eri..." Stiles tried to yell out a warning but Deucalion tightened his grip on Stiles' throat, cutting the sound off.

" _Quiet_ , Stiles," Deucalion murmured and Stiles could only stared, wide eyed, as Ennis threw a handful of the powder in Erica's face.

Immediately Erica doubled over with a howl and Stiles could feel the pain she was in through the bond. Stiles could almost feel the wolfsbane coating his own mouth and gagged along with Erica, tears streaming down his face.

Deucalion made a pleased humming noise. "So our observations were right. Don't worry, that particular strain of flower is only enough to incapacitate her for a little while. I'll return her to you even better than she was."

Stiles swallowed the smartass comment about how a blind man could 'observe' anything because that really wasn't going to help Erica. Instead he asked, "What are you going to do to her?"

"Just watch," Deucalion breathed against his ear and made a gesture with the hand not currently wrapped around Stiles' neck.

One of the twins dropped his hold on Erica, causing her to collapse forward, and came to stand in front of her with Ennis. Ennis reached into his pocket for something else and, while he was distracted, the twin stabbed a needle into his neck . Ennis roared and fell backwards.

"Now _that_ strain of wolfsbane is definitely lethal," Deucalion told Stiles in a conversational tone.

"What the fuck?" Stiles gasped as he watched black veins begin to show through Ennis' skin. "You're killing one of your own pack!"

"I prefer to think of it as...upgrading my pack," Deucalion said. "Losing one Alpha only to gain two Alpha Sentinels and a druid Guide. To gain an actual living _Triad_ ; that's a pretty good deal, don't you think?"

Stiles stiffened when he realised what the observation comment actually meant. He had only proved them right when he'd obviously shared Erica's pain. "We're never going to join you."

Deucalion tutted. "You'll do whatever your Sentinels do and we're about to give Erica some extra incentive to join us."

Stiles looked back at the group in front of them and already knew what he was about to see; Deucalion had said two _Alpha_ Sentinels, after all. Ennis was putting up a good fight against the twin but the wolfsbane was obviously taking its toll, having been injected directly into his bloodstream. Eventually he staggered then fell to his knees, throwing up the black goop that Stiles remembered from Derek's poisoning incident. The twin picked him up like he was a ragdoll while the other twin manoeuvred a barely struggling Erica to her knees and held her clawed hands out in front of her.

The first twin lifted Ennis so that he was directly above Erica's hands then howled as Derek burst out of the trees and barrelled into him. Deucalion growled and his grip on Stiles' throat tightened to the point that Stiles could feel small rivulets of blood running down his neck. Derek froze at the sight and, presumably, feel of it.

"That's right, Derek," Deucalion snarled. "I'll rip your Guide's throat out if you interfere with this."

"Empty threat," Stiles choked out, even if it really didn't feel like it. "You won't get the Triad if you kill me."

He heard Deucalion growl again then the claws slowly began to retract from his skin until Deucalion's hand was hovering about an inch from Stiles' neck. The fingers clenched as if Deucalion was fighting some sort of invisible barrier then Stiles realised that was exactly what was happening.

"Get the hell away from my son!" Stiles' father stepped out into the clearing, holding his hands out in front of him, then Deucalion flew backwards into a tree.

Stiles fell forward without Deucalion to hold him up but his dad was suddenly there, catching him before he faceplanted into the dirt. Derek was crouched in front of Erica, growling at the twins but thankfully not attacking. There was no way that they could go up against three Alphas, not when Erica and Stiles were pretty much down for the count. 

Stiles' dad pulled Stiles over to Derek then took up a similar defensive position as Deucalion got back to his feet. Deucalion exaggeratedly brushed the dirt off his clothes before removing his collapsible white cane from his pocket and assembling it. At some unspoken signal the twins moved to stand next to him, one of them placing Deucalion's arm on his own to support him.

"Until next time," Deucalion said with a nod of his head then the Alphas left without even a backwards glance at Ennis' body on the ground.

"Erica?" Stiles shifted closer to her in concern.

"M'okay..." She coughed. "Just tired. Really tired and really weak."

Derek relaxed his stance which told Stiles that the Alphas were out of range and immediately kneeled on the ground beside Erica with a hand out to comfort her.

"Don't," Stiles said. "They threw wolfsbane all over her."

Stiles dad began untying the rope around Stiles' hands. "We'll all go back to our place; I've put protective wards up. She can shower that crap off her and start healing."

As soon as Stiles' hands were free, he pulled Erica into a hug which she returned just as desperately. 

"Okay, son," his dad said gently. "Let's get you both out of here. Derek, you probably shouldn't be in the car with that powder."

"I'll run," Derek said. His fists clenched at his side uselessly, obviously desperate to touch his lovers. "I'll probably get there before you."

Stiles' dad nodded. "Stiles can you help me get Erica to the car?"

"Yeah," Stiles replied, climbing to his feet and gently pulling Erica up with him.

His dad slung an arm around her too and they made their way back to the road with Derek hovering angrily next to them. Stiles' jeep was still in the ditch with the passenger side crumpled from the impact.

"I'll call it in when we get home," his dad said. "Get a tow truck out here. I'll also call Deaton to deal with the body back there."

Stiles nodded, pretty sure that the jeep was dead, then helped Erica into the back of his dad's cruiser. Derek waited until Stiles' dad had started the engine before turning and running back into the woods.

"How did you find us?" Stiles asked once Erica was settled against him.

"Derek used the pack bond to track Erica," his dad replied. "He called me as soon as he felt your panic spike. I started to backtrack the route from the school but he called me again when he found your jeep and I headed straight here."

"Thank you," Erica said. "You really are badass."

Stiles' dad chuckled even as he kept scanning the roads for any sign of the Alphas. "No problem, sweetheart."

They got back to the house without incident and Stiles immediately helped Erica upstairs and into the shower while his dad called Deaton. This shower was a whole different experience to the one they had shared earlier that morning, this one as quick and thorough as possible to get all the wolfsbane off them. Erica was already beginning to heal by the time they dried off and made it to Stiles' bedroom to find Derek pacing anxiously as he waited.

Derek instantly pulled them both to him, checking their injuries and grounding himself with their scent. By the time his dad had finished a shower of his own to wash any wolfsbane transfer away, he found the three of them fully dressed and curled up together on Stiles' bed.

"You all doing okay?" he asked quietly and, at their murmurs in the affirmative, nodded his head. "Alright then, I'm going to head into the station to log an official report of the' hit and run' with Stiles' jeep. Those wards I mentioned will stop anything that means you harm from crossing the perimeter so you can relax and take the time to heal."

Stiles untangled himself from the other two and followed his dad out to the hall where he immediately pulled him back and gave him a hug. "Thanks, dad."

"Anytime, kid," his dad replied, hugging him back just as hard. 

The three of them spent the rest of the day snuggled up under a blanket on the couch. As Erica was still shaken, Stiles put on some Dr Who DVDs to cheer her up and at the same time kept up a text message conversation with the rest of the pack to explain why he and Erica hadn't shown up to school. It turned out that the Alpha twins _had_ shown up, late, and Scott and Jackson had barely managed to stop Isaac and Boyd from attacking them in the lunch hall when they picked up Erica's scent on them.

It came as no surprise when the whole pack turned up at Stiles' house ten minutes after school let out.

"We can't just sit around waiting for the next attack," Scott growled as he made a good attempt of pacing a hole into the living room carpet. "They've gone after Derek, now Erica...Stiles is going to be next."

"Deucalion wants the Triad in his pack for some reason. He's not going to kill me," Stiles pointed out, trying to calm Scott down.

"No but he _can_ hurt you until Derek and Erica agree to join him," Lydia said. "Once he's got those two, he's got you all because from what Stiles' showed me of his research, the Guide follows and supports the Sentinel."

"Whoever wrote that had obviously never met this particular Guide," Derek grumbled and Stiles poked him hard with his toe from his end of the couch but grinned at him all the same.

"We should make up a rota," Lydia said. "So that one of the wolves is with Stiles at all times."

"What? No!" Stiles protested. "I'm not some helpless Disney princess and I would like some alone time now and then."

"I thought you had Derek and Erica for that these days." Jackson waggled his eyebrows at Stiles who gave him an impressed look; Jackson was actually pretty funny when he dropped the douchebag persona.

Erica ignored Jackson and said quietly, "I was with Stiles today and that didn't do much good. He still got hurt."

Stiles grabbed her hands and frowned at her. "That wasn't your fault. They attacked us with a _car_ and then used wolfsbane; you couldn't have fought back against that."

"He's right," Derek agrees, pulling her tighter against him. "Unfortunately that means that they can easily take down any of us. They're too strong and far too unpredictable."

"So we need to be unpredictable as well," Boyd said with a firm nod. 

"What do you suggest?" Isaac asked.

"...Yeah, that's pretty much all I had," Boyd replied and Stiles snorted in amusement.

"Maybe we should find out _why_ Deucalion wants a Triad in his pack so much," Lydia suggested. "I mean, he has to be pretty desperate for it if he killed one of his own."

"Would Deaton know?" Derek raised an eyebrow at Stiles who nodded thoughtfully.

Scott, who was still pacing and hadn't calmed down in the slightest, suddenly turned his head towards the front door and growled. He leapt over the couch, threw open the door then grabbed Peter by the throat and dragged him inside.

"Whoa, Scott..." Stiles went to stand up but struggled as his legs were tangled in the blanket.

Scott leaned forward, right into Peter's face and snarled, "Leave my mother alone!"

The confusion in Peter's expression disappeared and he smiled at Scott. "So, she got my little gift then? Did she like it?"

"No, she didn't like it!" Scott yelled. "She doesn't need a psycho buying her a dress."

Peter tilted his head. "But she has such lovely skin, she should show it off more."

Scott growled again and Stiles enlisted the help of Isaac to pull him away from Peter. They pushed him into one of the armchairs then Isaac sat on him to keep him in place.

"Peter, why are you buying stuff for Melissa?" Stiles asked once Scott was dealt with, albeit still making angry growly noises.

"I feel that we got off to a bad start," Peter informed him, crossing his arms and looking for all the world like he was leaning against that patch of wall because he chose to be there. "I lied about who I was and I admittedly turned her son into a werewolf. However, I'm all about second chances these days."

Stiles pinched the top of his nose. "Please don't tell me that you're...Are you _courting_ her?"

"Of course I'm courting her," Peter said as if it was ridiculous that Stiles would even ask. "You have seen her, right? She's a very sexy lady."

At that point, Boyd also sat on Scott because he completely wolfed out and began roaring at Peter.

"Well, if you're buying gifts for people you've wronged, my taste is _extremely_ expensive. FYI," Lydia said, fixing Peter with a look that betrayed none of the fear Stiles could feel from her.

Peter looked back and Stiles swore he saw a flash of regret before he finally nodded at her. "Noted."

Scott was still struggling so Derek huffed an annoyed breath. 

"Scott, calm down," he said. "Peter, stop winding him up and tell us what you've found."

Peter smirked at Scott for a moment but sobered as he began to talk. "According to an old friend I managed to get in contact with, Deucalion killed his entire pack back in the day before setting up this new Alpha pack of his."

All of the werewolves gasped and looked horrified; it even shocked Scott enough to stop him growling.

"He killed his pack?" Derek asked incredulously. "Deliberately?"

Peter nodded. "And he's made it a requirement of any Alpha who wishes to join the Alpha pack. Which means that the rest of them did the exact same thing."

"So if he wants you to join his pack..." Isaac started.

"Never going to happen," Derek was quick to assure him. "I mean it, there's no way in hell that I'd join them. _You_ are my pack."

Stiles wouldn't have said that they all looked relieved, because they already knew that Derek wouldn't leave them, but some of the tension dispersed at the confirmation.

He sat back down on the couch and drummed his fingers against the armrest. "There's got to be a reason why he did it. If he wanted to swan off and make a new, stronger pack he could've just left the old one; he didn't need to kill them."

Peter gave Stiles an impressed look. "There's a rumour, although even that's not spoken of very often. It took considerable charm and money to get my friend to tell me but there is a rumour that Deucalion discovered something, some extra power that can be gained by killing one of your own."

There was silence as that sunk in.

"Jesus," Jackson eventually said. "No wonder they wanted to keep that quiet. No need to give your Alpha ideas."

"An Alpha shouldn't care," Derek ground out angrily. "You don't hurt your pack. Ever."

"If it's true and Deucalion got extra power or whatever from killing his betas...how much do you think he gets from killing one of his Alphas?" Erica suddenly asked.

"Technically, he didn't kill Ennis though," Stiles reminded her.

"No, one of the freaky twins that can already turn into a giant monster did," Isaac said with a groan.

"That's not what I meant." Erica shook her head. "I meant...perhaps that's why he wants a Triad."

"Two Sentinel Alphas who are part of a powerful union and that's just if he doesn't also get power from killing a non-wolf part of his pack," Lydia said. "If he got power from killing Stiles too then he can tap into the whole Triad thing."

Stiles automatically moved closer to his Sentinels. "I'm not even sure that there even is more power from being in a Triad. I know the research says there is but what I've been feeling seems to be what any bonded Guide feels from what I've read."

"I don't get something," Scott said then rolled his eyes at the expected catcalling. "Deucalion didn't know any of this, _we_ didn't know any of this Triad stuff until Stiles was bitten. So that means he came to town for a different reason; not to get the Triad, right?"

"No, he came for Derek." Peter straightened from his slouch and stared at Derek as if he'd suddenly realised something. "Derek's a shifter."

Stiles looked between Derek and Peter in confusion. "Aren't you all shifters? Isn't that the basic part of being a werewolf?"

"No, it's unusual," Derek said, his eyes locked on Peter's. "I inherited it from my mother. That's got to be why Deucalion mentioned her that day at the loft."

"I don't understand," Stiles said.

Peter sighed as if it pained him to have to explain things to plebs. "You saw my form when I was the Alpha, the big black 'monster'? That's what most Alphas turn into but shifters take the form of an actual wolf and if killing a pack member means you get their power..."

Stiles stared at Derek in shock, too surprised to even make fun of Peter for using finger quotes. "You turn into an actual wolf? Dude! Why have we never seen that?"

Derek shifted uncomfortably beneath Erica. "I have my reasons."

Stiles opened his mouth to press the issue but got hit with a burst of pain through the bond, the same one that he'd felt from Derek the day he was attacked at the loft and he'd mentioned his mom. So Stiles sunk back into the cushions and let it go.

An awkward silence descended the room until Jackson broke it once again.

"Let's go back to Peter wanting to bone McCall's mom," he said. "That was the best entertainment I've had in weeks."

* * * * * *

As the next day was Saturday, the whole pack (minus Derek and Peter) wound up at the lacrosse field. Stiles decided to take Isaac and Scott up on their offer of training him, Jackson insisted that they couldn't train their way out of a paper bag so Stiles obviously needed _his_ help and Boyd just wanted to play for the hell of it. Lydia and Erica sat up in the stands to cheer them on and it kind of messed with Stiles' brain that the two of them appeared to be leaning towards an actual friendship; that couldn't be good for him _or_ the world at large.

The boys finally collapsed onto the bleachers with the girls and fell into easy conversation about lacrosse, school, Finstock's increasing craziness, Harris' increasing dickishness...anything that came to mind. It was fun and normal and just what Stiles needed. 

Eventually, Scott pushed himself to his feet. "I have to go to work. I'll ask Deaton about the Triad thing for you."

Stiles nodded. "See if he knows anything about the Deucalion rumours as well."

"I will," Scott said then hesitated. "I was thinking, maybe I should ask Allison to see what her dad knows about this stuff too."

Erica, Boyd and Isaac immediately began growling at that suggestion and Stiles realised that he'd begun clutching his lacrosse stick hard enough to turn his knuckles white. He took a deep breath and deliberately relaxed his grip before noticing that Lydia was watching him with an expression that was a mix between concerned and like she'd suddenly discovered a new mathematical equation to solve.

"Whoa, look I know she did some horrible stuff to you," Scott was telling the three growling wolves with his hands held up defensively. "But she feels really bad about it and, besides that, her dad has access to information that we wouldn't. It could be helpful."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Scott," Stiles said in an even tone. "No offense, but I don't want the Argents knowing about me or the Triad if I can help it."

Scott frowned but nodded. "Okay, if that's what you want but I think you should at least consider it. We don't have to say it's anything to do with _you_."

Stiles made a non committal noise then distracted Scott with promises to text him if the rest of them made any plans for that night.

Lydia watched Scott drive out of the parking lot in his mom's car before pinning Stiles with a look. "Talk!"

Stiles avoided her eyes and shrugged. "It's nothing."

"Bullshit, Stilinksi," she said. "You looked furious when Allison's name came up. What's going on?"

"She hurt Erica and Boyd," Stiles told her. " _And_ Isaac, although I wasn't actually there for that. Also, she broke Scott's heart. I'm allowed to be pissed at her."

Erica scooted forward and hugged him from behind then Boyd moved to sit on the bleacher in front of him and wrapped an arm around Stiles' leg while Isaac did the same to his other leg. Lydia took all this in with interest while Jackson was clearly wondering if this sudden hugging of Stiles was something he should be involved in too.

"No, I'm not buying it." Lydia shook her head. "Pissed? Yeah but you almost snapped your stick in half which is pretty impressive anger for someone without extra..." Her eyes widened and Stiles cringed. "She knew, didn't she? Allison knew what her grandfather was doing to you that night?"

Stiles sighed and closed his eyes but that just brought back the memories of Gerard kicking his ribs over and over while Stiles lay curled up on the floor. The moment when he glanced up to see Allison standing at the top of the stair and the relief that had flooded him because she would put a stop to it. Then the cold unfeeling expression on her face, so reminiscent of her mother, as she watched for a moment before turning around and leaving the room.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jackson growled. "She knew?"

"Yeah, she knew," Erica answered for Stiles as she nuzzled him comfortingly. "She even watched for a while, I saw her."

"So did I," Boyd said.

"Me too," Stiles finally admitted. 

It was the first time he'd done so out loud even though he knew that Erica and Boyd, and probably Derek and Isaac, had known. Lydia looked stunned and was giving off a strange mix of hurt, horror and disbelief, which was to be expected considering they were talking about her best friend. Stiles had no idea how he'd feel if he found out the same thing about Scott but guessed it would probably be something similar.

Lydia hesitated, her eyes flicking to Erica, before she reached across and held Stiles' hand. "You need to tell Scott."

"I know," he said. "I just don't know _how_. He loves her so much, I don't want to be the one to take that away from him."

"Or maybe you're scared that he'll forgive her for it anyway?" Lydia kept her voice gentle but Stiles still flinched because that was also true. 

"He won't," Jackson said confidently then shrugged when Stiles looked at him. "You know how I feel about Lydia but if she ever did something like that to Danny..."

Lydia nodded as if she wouldn't expect anything less. "She's coming back to school Monday, Stiles. You need to tell him before you run into her and he figures it out for himself."

That was why Stiles found himself in Deaton's clinic waiting for Scott to finish work. Deaton was in the middle of an appointment with a teary girl and her ridiculously tiny dog so Stiles let himself into the back room and watched Scott feeding the kitties.

"Alright, you need to tell me what's wrong," Scott suddenly said, throwing his hands into the air. "I've never seen you this quiet in the entire time that I've known you. Is it something to do with Derek and Erica?"

Stiles shook his head. "Let's wait until you're finished."

"No, Stiles; you're freaking me out. Tell me now," Scott insisted. Stiles glanced towards the door and Scott shook his head. "The customer just left, it's just Deaton in there and he'll leave us alone."

"Allison knew that Gerard kidnapped me," Stiles said quickly then blinked in surprise because he really had meant to build up to it, not blurt it out like that.

Scott frowned. "Of course she didn't. She'd have helped you if she did. Did Gerard tell you that? Because he was obviously lying."

Stiles shook his head. "He didn't have to tell me, I saw her."

"She couldn't..." Scott said. "It's _Allison_. She'd never let you get hurt; you're her friend. Perhaps she didn't see you or didn't realise..."

"Scott..." Stiles looked at him sadly. "She knew it was me and she knew why I was there."

"No!" Scott yelled, his eyes beginning to glow.

The cats all started to hiss and yowl and the cages rattled as they tried to get away.

"Scott, you need to calm down..." Stiles tried, taking a step back as Scott started to wolf out.

"She. Didn't. Know," Scott growled at him, his features contorted in anger.

Stiles swallowed hard but refused to back down. "Yes, she did."

The door flew open. "What on earth is going on in..." Deaton didn't manage to finish because Scott shoved past him and ran out of the clinic. "Stiles?"

Stiles just shook his head and pulled out his cell. His finger hovered over Derek's number but he called Isaac instead. "Scott didn't take it too well. He's run off, do you think you can track him?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Isaac said. "Are you alright?"

Stiles dragged a hand through his hair. "Not really but I'm doing better than he is. Just...just make sure he doesn't do something stupid, okay?"

Isaac agreed to stick with Scott for the rest of the day and rung off to get started on tracking him down.

Deaton raised an eyebrow at Stiles then just nodded at Stiles answer of "Allison."

"Scott gave me your requests earlier," he said instead, walking back into the examination room as Stiles followed. "I've started putting some feelers out about whether an Alpha can really gain power from killing one of his Betas so it might be a few days before I have a definitive answer for you on that one. With regards to why Deucalion wants a Triad, I may have found out more. It appears that when he got to town, he was in contact with a druid that I know rather well." Deaton made a face as he said that, it was sort of exasperated which piqued Stiles' interest even though he busy worrying about Scott. "He was trying to persuade this particular druid to help him with a ritual."

"Do you know what ritual?" Stiles asked.

"Not yet," Deaton admitted. "She claims that he didn't tell her but I know her too well to fall for that. What I do know is that he cut off all contact with her a few days ago."

Stiles frowned. "Because he doesn't want to do the ritual anymore?"

"Because he's found a new druid," Deaton said, giving Stiles a pointed look. "One who comes with a Triad and is therefore far more powerful than any single druid would be."

"Well that's just great." Stiles sighed. "Okay, we need to find out what the hell ritual he wants done. Do you think that you can get it out of this mysterious druid of yours?"

Deaton nodded. "I have my ways."

"Right." Stiles wasn't sure if he wanted to know what that meant. 

He was still feeling a bit shaken and disappointed by Scott's reaction, although not really surprised, so Stiles tried to take his mind off it by browsing a couple of Deaton's magic books while the man pottered quietly around him. He occasionally asked for clarification about something he read and Deaton would explain it patiently. Sometimes an interesting passage caught his eye and Stiles would photograph the page with his phone and send it to Lydia because they had decided to make a new bestiary/magical wiki of their own to help the pack.

He managed to become so engrossed that the sound of the bell from the waiting room actually made Stiles jump. He shook his head and went to make a self deprecating comment to Deaton but the worried expression on the other man's face made him swallow it. He followed Deaton out of the room then glared when he saw Deucalion standing on the other side of the counter.

"We're closed for the day," Deaton told him.

Deucalion smiled. "I'm actually here to talk to Stiles."

"To talk?" Stiles scoffed. "Not knock me around some more because I have to say, I've been getting some good practise with the healing spells since you rolled into town."

"Just to talk," Deucalion said. "Me and you, without any interference from either of our packs."

Stiles rolled his eyes even though the Alpha couldn't see it. "You really expect me to believe you're here on your own?"

"Ethan and Aiden are outside," Deucalion confirmed with a nod of his head. "But they won't come in unless I'm in danger and we'll all leave when this little discussion is over."

"That's the thing about you and your little discussions, they usually involve bloodshed," Stiles pointed out. "So excuse me if I'm not reassured."

Deucalion laughed. "Well in that case, be reassured by all the mountain ash lining this office. I couldn't hurt you in here even if that was what I came here for. The good doctor did an outstanding job."

"I try," Deaton said as dry as the Sahara. 

He looked at Stiles questioningly and Stiles nodded; he knew that he was safe behind the counter. Deaton gave a nod in return and walked back into the examination room.

"So..." Stiles began. "What exactly did you want to talk to me about? Did you want to be my date to prom? Because I think that position's already filled."

"It does appear to be," Deucalion agreed. "Are you taking Erica or Derek? I'd say go for Erica, there'll be less scandal among the natives."

"I don't know, Erica can be pretty scandalous when she puts her mind to it," Stiles replied. "What do you want, Deucalion? We've already made it clear that we're not going to join your pack and, quite frankly, you're turning a bit Edward Cullen on us at this point."

Deucalion snorted and Stiles took a moment to appreciate the fact that the guy had obviously read Twilight. 

"How about if I offer an incentive?" Deucalion asked. "Say...the remaining Argents heads on a platter? I'm sure Derek would appreciate that considering what that family did to his."

"Firstly, I thought I made it clear how I feel about bloodshed," Stiles told him. "Secondly, if you kill the Argents, you know that's just going to cause more hunters to come to town. The only reason we aren't overrun already is because Chris is holding them back."

Stiles wasn't exactly sure if that was true but he suspected that hunters were just as territorial as werewolves were. With the amount of suspicious animal attacks in town lately, he'd been honestly surprised that more hunters hadn't appeared. Plus, as angry as he was with Allison, he didn't want to see her dead.

"That's exactly right." Deucalion was smiling like Stiles had passed a test. "You'd have made a good Alpha, Stiles. You have the instincts to lead and protect your pack." 

"Then you must be a really shitty Alpha," Stiles said. "Because I'm pretty sure that _killing_ your entire pack is the opposite of protecting them."

Shock flittered across Deucalion's face for a moment then he tutted. "It sounds like someone's been talking out of school."

"So, it _is_ true then." 

"When I was blinded, my second decided that I was weak, unfit to be Alpha anymore," Deucalion told him. "He tried to take it from me and I fought back. When he died, all the power he had transferred to me and made me even stronger. It was...illuminating."

"I'm sure it was," Stiles deadpanned. "That doesn't mean that you could just kill the rest of them. I mean, even the humans?"

"Now you're just fishing for information," Deucalion said. "But yes, even the humans; they have their own power."

And there was the confirmation that Deucalion could take the power of all three members of the Triad if they were in his pack.

"I'm being truthful with you, Stiles," Deucalion continued. "I could've denied everything, laughed it off as a petty rumour, but I didn't. The past few days have shown me that I underestimated you and your Sentinels, so no more strong arm tactics and no more lies. I want you to join my pack and you have my word that you will never be harmed if you do so."

Stiles studied him for a moment. "Why are you so desperate to get us?"

Deucalion chuckled. "Do you have any idea how rare a Triad is? How special? Your presence will raise us above any other pack in the country."

"So it's still about you gaining power." Stiles nodded.

"Of course it is," Deucalion admitted with a shrug. "And that's why I would never kill you. You're far more valuable to me alive."

"But you would expect us to kill our pack to prove our loyalty, or whatever fucked up reasoning you've come up with to explain it, and there's no way in hell that's happening," Stiles told him. "So, no. No deal."

Deucalion's eyes narrowed. "That's your final word? You don't want to discuss it with your Sentinels?"

"I don't need to, I know their answer," Stiles said.

"Very well, I tried." Deucalion turned towards the door. "I'll see you around, Stiles."

After he left, Deaton came to stand beside Stiles. "Do you believe him?"

Stiles snorted. "Not for a second."

Deaton smiled. "There's hope for you yet."

Once he was certain that the Alphas had left, Stiles called Derek to pick him up. Isaac was still out, keeping an eye on Scott and Boyd was with Jackson and Lydia, weirdly enough, so Stiles was able to curl up with his Sentinels at the loft. He told them everything that had happened then let them look after him because, even after the encounter with Deucalion, it was still the conversation with Scott that was affecting him most. His denial of what Stiles was telling him, his insistence that Stiles was wrong, before just running out of there, had cut deep; just as Stiles had known it would. 

Derek and Erica had pulled him to bed for some slow and gentle lovemaking, so different from any of the sex they'd had so far. It left him feeling wanted and loved but still didn't get rid of the knot in the pit of his stomach. That didn't ease until he woke in the night to find Scott kneeling next to the bed whining softly.

Isaac stood above him. "He wouldn't go home. He insisted that I brought him here," he said in a whisper.

Stiles took one look at Scott's eyes, bright with unshed tears, and lifted the edge of the blanket. Scott immediately climbed in next to him and Stiles had a moment to be thankful that he, Derek and Erica had watched a movie before going to sleep and were therefore all in some combination of pyjamas. Not that it probably mattered to anyone else, werewolves had zero problem with nudity.

"I'm sorry," Scott muttered into Stiles' neck.

Stiles shifted to give him room to wrap an arm around Stiles' waist. "I know. It's okay."

Isaac smiled and began to back away.

"Pup," Derek said in a sleep rough voice and lifted the blanket on the other side of the bed.

Isaac eagerly climbed in too and Erica groaned. "This bed's not big enough for this."

"Derek will just have to buy a bigger one," Stiles told her and Derek half heartedly slapped him.

They all moved about to make space for the impromptu puppy pile and Stiles found himself snuggled between Scott and Erica with Derek reaching over Erica to grip his hip and Isaac sprawled against Derek's back.

"Boyd's going to be so mad that he missed this," Erica commented with a yawn before they all fell asleep.

* * * * * *

"Well isn't this adorable?"

Stiles blinked his eyes open to see Lydia standing beside the bed with a very amused expression. Jackson was next to her, looking a weird combination of disturbed and jealous, whereas Boyd just looked pissed.

"S'Scott's fault," Stiles told him. "Kill him not me."

Scott made a strange snuffling noise and tried to move even closer to Stiles which was, quite frankly, impossible. Boyd narrowed his eyes then stomped off towards the kitchen.

"Shit," Erica muttered.

"I'll deal with it," Derek told her then slid out from beneath Isaac and padded after Boyd.

Stiles, meanwhile, tried to get free from Octopus McCall's limbs. Eventually, he managed to get Scott to cuddle Stiles' pillow instead of the actual Stiles and snuck out of the bed, sending Lydia and Jackson a glare over the fact they'd just stood there laughing and had been no help at all. He flipped them both off, to more laughter, and went to grab a quick shower as an attempt to wake himself up properly.

When he emerged, Scott was still snoring into the pillow but everyone else had congregated on the sofas; apart from Boyd. Stiles wandered into the kitchen to find him making a pot of coffee. He looked less angry but not particularly happy either.

Stiles hopped up to sit on the counter. “You know you’re my bro, right?” Boyd raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything so Stiles kept going. “I mean, Scott’s Scott; we’ve been friends forever and probably always will be but you come next. I know we haven’t been friends for very long in the grand scheme of things but we have been through a lot of crap. I just always feel better knowing you’re at my back and you should know that I’ve got yours.”

“If you’re saying that you didn’t leave me out on purpose,” Boyd said dryly. “Derek already told me that.”

“That’s not _all_ I was saying.” Stiles huffed a little.

“Oh, so it was that I’m only second to McCall in your heart?” Boyd’s lips twitched. 

Stiles crossed his arms. “But I’m going off you more and more every moment.”

Boyd laughed and Stiles smiled, considering it a job well done, especially when Boyd nudged his shoulder companionably as Stiles helped with the coffees. 

“So how do _I_ get to be your second best friend?” Lydia asked as they walked into the main room. “I don’t think it’s fair that Boyd just strolls away with the title like that. There should be some sort of competition.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. The werewolves obviously had no shame when it came to eavesdropping and Lydia had no shame when it came to demanding to be told what exactly they were eavesdropping on.

“Screw that, I want to know how I can take Scott’s position.” Isaac gave Stiles a cheeky grin. 

Jackson snorted. “What? Drooling all over him and clinging like Stiles is some giant teddy bear? That position?”

“I’ll have you know that I make an awesome teddy bear,” Stiles told him, dropping down into the empty space next to him and holding his arms open. “Come on, Jackson. You know you want to try it.”

Stiles expected Jackson to roll his eyes and push him away so it was a surprise when Jackson actually did pull him close after a moment’s consideration. He arranged Stiles so that he was leaning back against Jackson’s chest and wrapped his arms around him, just like a child would do to their toy bear.

Erica and Lydia practically fell over, they were laughing so hard.

“The look on your face,” Erica pointed at Stiles.

Lydia pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of it. “Oh, that’s gold. Good job, baby.”

Boyd rearranged Stiles’ legs across his own, apparently determined to be part of any new puppy pile that might be happening, while Stiles sighed and resigned himself to the manhandling; he _had_ brought it on himself. Scott finally woke up about an hour later and blinked blearily at them all before climbing over Jackson and Boyd to snuggle up to Stiles again.

"Feeling any better, buddy?" Stiles asked him.

"Not really," Scott muttered. "But I will."

Stiles patted him on the arm. "Want to come watch baseball with my dad?"

"We're watching baseball?" Isaac complained.

"We're watching baseball?" Boyd grinned.

Stiles snorted. "I like the way you all assume you're invited too."

"Of course we're invited," Lydia said. "We're pack."

"Yeah, didn't you say something about your dad knowing that he's stuck with us all now?" Jackson agreed.

Stiles looked at Derek who just shrugged. "They've got a point. Might as well get him used to it."

"Fine," Stiles said, trying to dislodge Scott's arm so that he could get to his phone and at least give his dad a heads up. "But you're all bringing the snacks."

In the end, Stiles, Derek, Jackson and Boyd went to the grocery store in Jackson's jeep. The others headed straight to Stiles' house because Scott was too mopey and clingy for public consumption and Isaac was still on Scott-watch duty. Meanwhile the girls had decided that they needed to organise the Stilinski living room for maximum comfort; whatever that meant.

"Stilinski, stop putting this low fat crap in here," Jackson complained, pulling a bag of salt-free pretzels out of the cart as if it mortally offended him. "We're men about to watch sport. Unhealthy food is mandatory."

"Yeah and we're watching sport in _my_ house with _my_ dad who will eat everything that's bad for him if he can get away with it," Stiles took the bag and threw it back into the cart. "I'm looking out for him and if you don't like it, invite us all to your house next time."

"Seriously? Are you two going to do this the entire way around the store?" Derek scrubbed a hand over his face. "I feel like I'm shopping with squabbling kids."

But it did nothing to slow Stiles and Jackson down. They kept bickering until it reached the point that they were full out yelling at each other over frozen chicken wings.

"Jackson, go and get the sodas," Derek snapped, stepping in between them. "Boyd, get some steaks. I saw a grill in the garden, we can cook them up for dinner." He waited until both of them left then crowded Stiles up against the freezers. "You need to calm down."

"He just doesn't get it," Stiles said.

"I know." Derek put a hand on the back of Stiles' neck comfortingly. "But you are going a little overboard. It's just one afternoon."

"It's not though, is it?" Stiles tried not to melt into the touch because he was still angry at Jackson. "You said that he has to get used to it which means this is probably going to turn into a regular occurrence. And that's great but I need to set the rules now before he's eating crappy food every day and has a heart attack because I couldn't take care of him."

Derek's eyes softened. "He's not going to have a heart attack, Stiles. I can actually hear his heart, remember? It's strong and healthy and he could probably heal it himself if it wasn't."

"He couldn't heal my mom, could he?" Stiles snapped before he sighed and shook his head apologetically. "I know he's okay really. I mean, I know it _rationally_ but...he's my dad. He's the only family I have left and he's got a dangerous job but this was always one way I could keep him safe, I guess."

"And it's got worse now because it's not just his job that's putting him in danger anymore?" Derek guessed and Stiles nodded. "Okay. How about we go for half healthy stuff, half unhealthy?"

"Okay," Stiles nodded and Derek pulled him into a hug, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of his head.

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. "I have nothing against you guys doing...whatever it is that you're doing. Seriously, I have a friend who's gay; no judgement here. But you're blocking the chicken wings."

Stiles groaned into the front of Derek's shirt at the familiar voice then straightened. "Heeeey Coach. How are you this fine day?"

"Stilinski?" Finstock's eyes jumped between Stiles and Derek and the arm that Derek still had around Stiles. "What happened to the hot girl? Not that I have a problem with you and a guy if that's your thing. Danny's gay, did you know that? And I'm fine with it, just ask him."

"I know you are, Coach," Stiles said, nodding uncomfortably. 

"Good, good." An awkward silence fell as Finstock studied Stiles thoughtfully. "Are you using a dating service or something? 'Hotties R Us dot com'?"

"Umm..." Stiles jumped as the cell went off in his pocket and he scrambled for it gratefully, anything to get away from this conversation. "Isaac! Hi!"

He grabbed hold of Derek and pulled him away, pointing at his phone and giving Coach a weak wave as they left. They took a brief detour to get the candy Isaac had requested then met up with Jackson and Boyd near the checkout, the two of them snickering because they'd obviously heard the entire encounter. 

"I hate you both," Stiles grumbled and threw the candy onto the conveyor belt.

It wasn't until half way through the game, when they'd all eaten the majority of the boatload of snacks Stiles and the others had got and were lazily slumped all over the room, that Stiles got around to telling them about his encounter with Deucalion.

"You think that he's lying? That he would kill you if you joined his pack?" Lydia asked.

Stiles nodded. "Definitely."

"It makes you wonder about the rest of Alphas," his dad said. "They have to know that their position in the pack is tenuous at best. Especially since he had them kill Ennis. Why are they still with him?"

"You think he has something over them?" Stiles hadn't really thought about that.

Erica drummed her fingers on her thigh. "You know, Kali hasn't been with them since that day at the loft. I wonder if he's done something to _her_."

"And if he has then the twins have got to be worried," Lydia picked up on where Erica was going.

"No," Derek said. "You're not going to approach the twins."

"Oh, come on, Derek." Erica fixed him with a look. "They're on their own in school. It's the perfect opportunity to talk to them."

"They won't start anything in front of all the humans," Isaac pointed out. 

Stiles' dad sighed and looked at Derek. "As much as I hate to admit it, they've got a point. We couldn't get that kind of access to the twins."

Derek frowned. "I still don't like it."

"Look, we promise to only talk to them when there are other people around," Stiles told him. "And we'll back off if it seems like it's going bad."

"You better had," Derek growled, his eyes flashing a little.

"You keep your phone on you at all times," Stiles' dad put in, "and you call me the minute you think something's wrong. I mean it, Stiles; even if you've just got a bad feeling about it all."

"I will," Stiles assured him then looked at Derek. "You're going to be hanging around outside the school like a creeper all day, aren't you?"

Derek just crossed his arms and didn't answer which Stiles took to mean 'yes'.

* * * * * *

The next morning they all congregated by the lockers, trying to figure out the best time to approach the twins. Lydia seemed distracted though and kept touching her bag.

"Hey, you okay?" Stiles asked her in a low voice and she blinked at him in surprise, as if she didn't know that she'd been spacing out.

"Yes, I..." She frowned. "Can I borrow you at lunch?"

"Of course," Stiles told her and she nodded gratefully.

Before he had the chance to push her on why she wanted to meet up, the werewolves suddenly stiffened around them. Stiles looked up and saw Allison walking through the main doors.

"Shit," he breathed and automatically wrapped his hand around Scott's wrist. "You doing okay?"

Scott stared at Allison mournfully for a long moment then slowly his expression hardened. He turned and began pulling books out of his locker with a little more force than necessary. "I'm fine."

Stiles didn't need his swanky new Guide powers to feel the anger and hurt pouring off his friend. He was frankly impressed with the amount of control Scott was exerting not to wolf out, right there. The entire group closed ranks around Scott, each of them giving him fleeting touches of support and comfort. Even when they went to their first class, they arranged themselves so that Scott and Stiles' desks were in the centre of them all. It gave Stiles a warm feeling because this is what 'pack' was.

Allison sent them all a nervous look when she walked into the room and seemed like she was about to approach Lydia but Lydia pointedly turned to the desk behind her and began chatting with Erica. Jackson deliberately engaged Scott in a conversation about the lacrosse team which meant that Scott was also facing away from Allison and in the end she took a desk on the other side of the room.

At lunch, Lydia barely waited long enough for Stiles to put his books away before she dragged him outside. They ended up sitting on a patch of grass far enough away from the milling lunch crowd that no one could overhear them but still in view of enough people that any lurking Alphas would stay away.

"This was on my doorstep this morning," Lydia said pulling a cardboard box from her bag and handing Stiles a card that had obviously arrived with it.

_My Lydia,  
Please accept this these small tokens as the start of the many apologies I owe you.  
Yours, Peter._

"'My Lydia'? God, the guy's even creepy in written form," Stiles muttered. "What did he give you?"

She showed him a small box with some very expensive looking emerald earrings. 

"Creepy but with exquisite taste, I have to admit," she said. "But that's not why I wanted to talk to you. He also gave me this."

She opened the larger box and pushed aside the tissue paper to show Stiles a very old looking leather bound book. She ran her fingers over the golden lettering.

"'Bean Sidhe'," she read. "I looked it up this morning, it's Gaelic for 'banshee'."

Stiles' eyebrows went up. "Banshee? What do you think?"

"I think it feels right." She nodded. "But also _lame_. I mean, come on, I can do better than yelling when someone dies."

"There's probably a bit more to it than that," Stiles pointed out. "After all, you've already raised someone from the dead _and_ you mysteriously showed up in time to stop the kanima massacring a whole group of our friends."

"That is true," she mused. "Looks like I need to learn Gaelic so that I can translate this."

Stiles snorted. "I give you until next week before you're reading it fluently."

"Please." She gave him a haughty look. "I'll do it by the weekend."

They'd figured out that the twins shared a study period after lunch with Stiles, Lydia, Scott and Isaac. So the four of them headed to the library and hung about in the stacks until they saw the twins arrive.

They looked up when the group approached their table then gave identical expressions of surprise when they all sat down.

"What is this?" Aiden asked, letting a little bit of red bleed into his eyes.

"Just wondering what you're doing for the Econ essay," Stiles replied. "I want to do something that doesn't need that much research but isn't too obvious, you know. Any ideas?"

"Cute," Aiden said. "Now, what do you really want?"

"Just a friendly chat." Isaac casually began studying his fingernails in that creepy way he did and Stiles had to struggle not to smile because Isaac was actually the least creepy guy he knew outside of Scott.

"Really?" Ethan leaned back in his seat. "What could you possibly want to chat to us about?"

"How can you stay with Deucalion?" Scott burst out with in the most unsubtle way of interrogating anyone ever.

Aiden shrugged. "Why wouldn't we? He's the pack leader."

"You couldn't have said 'leader of the pack'?" Stiles asked. "Just for fun."

"No," Aiden said but Stiles swore he could see a tiny glimmer of amusement on Ethan's face.

Plus the guy kept looking over Stiles' shoulder every few minutes. Stiles frowned then turned around in time to see Danny ducking his head with a small smile. Stiles raised an eyebrow at Ethan who blushed and deliberately turned his attention back to the conversation. Interesting. Lydia also appeared to have noticed it and was glaring at Ethan.

"The guy killed his old pack," Scott was saying.

"So did we," Aiden pointed out.

"I don't think it was the same thing," Lydia said. "You're our age. How did you end up Alphas of a pack?"

The twins exchanged an uncomfortable look at that and Stiles wanted to hug Lydia because she'd obviously hit on something, genius that she was.

"That's beside the point," Ethan finally said. "This is our pack now."

"Fair enough," Stiles replied. "But can't you see that he's doing the same thing all over again? He's already had you kill Ennis and, to be fair, he seemed like a dickwad but we've got Jackson and _he's_ an integral part of our pack, dickwad or not."

"Wow, I'm sure he'll be over the moon to hear you put it like that," Isaac drawled with a smirk.

"Ennis was a sacrifice," Aiden said but as though he was just parroting something he'd heard many times rather than something he believed. 

"Yeah, a sacrifice to get me and my Sentinels, dude!" Stiles flailed a little. "Do we really seem important enough for you to kill one of your own?"

Ethan gave him a look. "No, you don't but Deucalion says that you're special."

"Until he kills us then he'll be all kinds of special himself," Stiles muttered.

"He gave you his word that you'll be unharmed," Ethan reminded him.

Lydia snorted. "And I'm sure he gave the same assurances to Ennis. Where's Kali, by the way? We haven't seen her for a while. She been bumped off too? Wait, I'm sorry...'sacrificed'."

"You leave Kali out of this," Aiden growled. "I think this _chat_ is over."

He got up and grabbed his bag. Ethan hesitated for a moment and then did the same before they both stalked out of the room.

"Well, that went well," Isaac commented. 

Scott nodded. "You definitely touched a nerve when you mentioned Kali. I wonder what's going on there."

"No idea. I'm actually more concerned about what's going on _there_." She nodded her head towards Danny. "Jackson's not going to be pleased when I tell him."

"What are you talking about?" Scott had his confused puppy face on.

"Tweedle Dee was making eyes at Danny," Stiles told him. "And, from the looks of it, it definitely wasn't unwanted."

"One of them has the hots for Danny?" Isaac asked. "Can we use that?"

"No!" Stiles, Lydia and Scott all said at the same time.

Isaac held his hands up. "Just asking."

Stiles stared thoughtfully in the direction the twins had run off. "Did you see how Ethan paused before following his brother? We may have got through to _him_ , at least."

The last class of the day was Chemistry and as Stiles settled down, preparing himself for an hour of being picked on by Harris, someone walked in and handed Harris a note.

"Mr Stilinski, it seems that you have an appointment with the Guidance Counsellor," Harris said. "Perhaps she can work out what exactly is wrong with you. God knows, I've given up."

Stiles exchanged a confused look with the rest of the pack then gathered his things and went to see Morrell. 

"Stiles, have a seat." Morrell smiled at him when he entered.

Stiles did as she said. "I wasn't aware that I had an appointment to see you."

"You didn't but we do need to talk," she told him then flicked her hand causing a warm glow to appeared briefly along the walls and door. "That will stop _sensitive_ ears from overhearing."

Stiles stared at her with wide eyes. "You're a druid."

She chuckled and gave Stiles a look. "It's not like I'm the only one in this school."

"True," Stiles acknowledged with a wry smile. "Are you Deaton's mysterious druid friend?"

"Is that what he called me?" She shook her head. "I swear he gets more paranoid with every birthday. Although, I guess you can't really blame him in this town."

She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs, studying Stiles for a moment before asking, "Have you ever heard of a Nematon?"

"I don't know, is that one of the Transformers?" Stiles asked.

Morrell gave him an unimpressed look. "I thought you were interested in what Deucalion was doing in town. Was I mistaken?"

"No, you weren't. Sorry." Stiles winced. "Sometimes my mouth engages before my brain."

"A Nematon is a place of great power," Morrell continued after making Stiles squirm for a little longer. "Druids use it and channel some of that power for their more complex spells. There used to be a Nematon here in town."

"Used to be?" Stiles asked.

Morrell nodded. "It was a sacred tree but it was destroyed, cut down in its prime."

Stiles frowned. "Cut down? So some of it still remains?"

"Yes." Morrell gave him a pleased smile. "Rumour has it that there's a stump still out in the woods somewhere. Normally that wouldn't be enough to work with but this is Beacon Hills. Do you know how the town got its name?"

"Actually, no." Stiles shook his head.

"It's because it's a literal beacon of energy," Morrell explained. "There are an unusually high amount of telluric currents running through the earth below the town. The Nematon amplified that energy into one focal point."

"How much power are we talking?"

Morrell raised an eyebrow at him. "Definitely more than would be in a Triad."

Stiles nodded. "Deucalion's after the Nematon."

"Yes he is," Morrell said. "But there are a few things standing in his way. He doesn't have access to the Nematon, it was hidden a long time ago but there are certain families in town who might still be able to find it despite the magic camouflaging it from everyone else."

Stiles groaned. "Please don't say my family."

Morrell chuckled. "Actually it was hidden before your father's time. However, the _Hales_ have lived in this town for many generations."

"Derek knows where it is?"

"Deucalion certainly believes that he does," Morrell told him. "He claims to have evidence that Derek's mother did and that the information was inherited knowledge."

Stiles nodded thoughtfully. "So that's why he was originally trying to get Derek in his pack."

"Yes," Morrell confirmed. "The plan was to use Derek to find the Nematon but Deucalion would still need to reawaken it, if there is indeed enough of the tree left to focus the currents."

Peter had been right, Deucalion had come to town to get Derek but it wasn’t because Derek had inherited his mother’s shifter ability, it was because he’d inherited her knowledge.

"Let me guess," Stiles said. "He'd need a druid to perform a ritual of some kind."

"Which is where I came in." Morrell gave him a wry smile. "Until he found out about the Triad, of course. Now he wants to get Derek and a druid in one fell swoop."

Stiles frowned. "You were actually going to help him do this?"

Morrell raised an eyebrow at him but didn't answer. Stiles chose to believe that she wouldn't have; it only made sense that Deucalion would become so excited about finding a new druid if the previous one had been giving him trouble. Also, her advice really helped Stiles after the whole mess with Matt; he didn't want to think that she would work with the Alphas.

"Okay..." Stiles scrubbed a hand over his face. "Worst case scenario; what will happen if Deucalion manages to reawaken the Nematon?"

"That I don't know," Morrell admitted. "But if I were to guess, he'd get the druid to bind him to it. Channelling that amount of power? He'd be unstoppable."

"Awesome." Stiles sighed. "He does get that I'm new to all this, right? I don't know how to perform this ritual or bind people to mystical tree stumps."

"Look." Morrell suddenly leaned forward on the desk with a serious expression on her face. "Deucalion is dangerous. Not just because he has no qualms with killing to get what he wants but because he _always_ has a plan. You and your pack need to be very careful right now."

Stiles nodded as the bell went, signifying the end of the day.

* * * * * *

Derek was waiting outside as if he'd just arrived even though they all knew better. Once the whole pack arrived, Stiles told them he had news and that they should meet up at the loft.

As they went through the 'who's driving who' routine, he noticed Allison watching them from near the doors but he couldn't worry about that, his mind was still churning over everything Morrell had told him. Lydia, on the other hand, obviously had a point to make as she grabbed Stiles hand and pulled him along to her car, chattering the entire time about inconsequential stuff. The time that Lydia and Erica had spent bonding over the weekend seemed to have put Erica's worries to rest because she just watched them with a mostly amused expression before climbing into Derek's car.

"We need to make a quick stop at my place," Lydia told him as they buckled up. "I want to grab my laptop so that I can get started on the translation."

"Sure," Stiles said. "You gonna pass out in my lap like you did last time I was in your bedroom?"

Lydia glared at him. "We never ever speak of that."

"Ha!" Stiles crowed. "I knew you remembered it!"

It took longer than expected to grab Lydia's stuff because her mother was home and insisted on telling Stiles how happy she was that his dad got his job back. Then she began not so subtly fishing for details on the Sheriff's social life while Stiles tried to back away and Lydia just rolled her eyes behind her mother's back.

"Seriously?" Stiles said as they walked back to the car. 

"She's decided to start dating again." Lydia shrugged. "She could do a lot worse than your dad."

"No!" Stiles flailed, suddenly getting just why his dad insisted on remaining in the dark about Stiles' sex life. "Those questions were not about _dating_ my dad and you know it!"

Stiles shuddered at the thought and opened the passenger door. Then he suddenly got hit with an electric shock so strong that he convulsed several times before he dropped to the floor and passed out.

"...iles. Come on, Stiles, wake up!"

Stiles felt hands on his face and heard Lydia's voice which was clearly on the verge of panicking.

"Wha' happened?" He groaned and looked up to see her kneeling over him.

"Oh, thank god!" Lydia breathed and sat back on her heels. "You started shaking then you just dropped to the ground."

"I got shocked," Stiles told her, remembering what it felt like.

Lydia shook her head. "No, you didn't. There's nothing to get shocked on."

"Shit!" Stiles cursed and sat up. He pulled his phone from his pocket. "It must've come through the bond."

Before he could dial Derek's number, his phone rang with an incoming call from Scott.

"Stiles! Something's wrong!" Scott said frantically. "We found Derek's car in the middle of the road. Isaac was on the ground next to it, out cold, and the other two are gone. We can't even pick up a trail."

"We need to go," Stiles said to Lydia as he got shakily to his feet. "Scott, tell me where you are."

They made it to the abandoned car in record time. Scott had obviously carried Isaac to the side of the road and was kneeling next to him worriedly. Jackson and Boyd were prowling around Derek's car growling lowly with their eyes flashing.

"I can only smell wolfsbane," Boyd snarled when Stiles walked over to him. "They used it to cover the scent trail."

"You didn't see what happened?" Stiles was trying not to panic. He could feel that Derek and Erica were still alive and he hadn't felt any more pain since the shock so he had to believe that they were okay for now.

"McCall had to pick up his homework." Jackson glared at Scott. "So we went to his house first."

Lydia wrapped her arms around Jackson in an effort to calm him down and he buried his face in her hair.

Stiles looked at Boyd. "What about the pack bond? Can you track them with that?" 

Boyd shook his head. "I can't get a fix on them. I don't know why; it's like something’s interfering with it."

Stiles cursed and closed his eyes for a moment to think. "Okay, we're all going to my place. Boyd, you drive Derek's car. Scott, get Isaac into Jackson's jeep then call Deaton and get him to meet us there. Does anyone have Peter's number?"

Boyd climbed into the car then threw Stiles a phone which he knew was Derek's.

"Is Erica's in there too?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah, they were both left on the passenger seat," Boyd said and Stiles shook his head. 

There went Plan A; no tracking them by the GPS on their phones.

As Lydia drove them to his house, Stiles phoned Peter and got him to come meet them too then called his dad. By the time everyone was assembled in the living room, Isaac had woken up.

"An SUV pulled out in front of us, taking up the whole road so we couldn't pass," he told them. "Then another car did the same behind us so we couldn't reverse either. We knew it was the Alphas. Derek was furious and jumped out of the car so me and Erica followed then the twins appeared with these big ass tazers...I've never felt a shock as strong as that. I was knocked out in minutes."

It confirmed what Stiles had guessed happened. He wanted to comfort Isaac who was obviously blaming himself for not doing more but he felt like he was coming out of his skin and all he could do was pace anxiously as he desperately tried to think of a way to get to his Sentinels.

"I could cast for them the same way that I did for Stiles," his dad was saying. "But if the pack bond's being blocked, I'm not sure how..."

He trailed off when Stiles' phone started to ring.

"Hello, Stiles," Deucalion's voice came down the line and Stiles gave a pretty impressive growl considering he wasn't a wolf. "Calm down, your Sentinels are fine."

"Let them go," Stiles gritted out.

"I think we both know that's not going to happen," Deucalion said. "But if you do as I tell you, I will let you see them. Why don't you grab a pen and some paper? There are a few things that you need to pick up."

Deucalion reeled off a list of herbs and magical aids which Stiles was sure must be needed for the ritual Morrell mentioned. His dad and Deaton were reading the growing list over his shoulder, each of them frowning.

"You've got until midnight to gather all those items together then I'll call you with directions," Deucalion said before he abruptly hung up.

"What does he need all that stuff for?" Scott asked from where the werewolves were cuddled together and listening in.

"He wants to wake up the Nematon," Stiles told him.

There was an interesting reaction; his dad made a choked noise, Deaton and Peter looked very worried while the other wolves just made confused sounds. Stiles proceeded to tell them about the conversation he'd had with Morrell.

"Unstoppable?" Isaac repeated. "Jesus!"

Stiles turned to Peter. "Do you know where the Nematon is?"

"Traditionally only the Alpha Hale can find it," Peter replied. "Luckily for you, I used to be one of those."

"You could just say 'yes'," Boyd growled.

"Why would he use one word when he could use fifteen?" Isaac muttered. "He loves the sound of his own voice."

Peter's eyes flashed. "I'm going to let that slide for now, _pup_."

"For now?" Scott questioned. "Already planning on taking over as Alpha? We all know that you're just biding your time. This must look like a fantastic opportunity from where you're standing."

A low growl came from Peter's chest and Stiles slammed his hand down on the table.

"Enough!" he yelled. "The only way we're going to get Derek and Erica back is if we work together as a pack. So knock it the fuck off, right now!"

The pack all stared at Stiles with wide eyes then nodded, even Peter.

"Stiles? A word?" his dad suddenly asked, nodding towards the kitchen.

Stiles followed him and, as soon as he closed the door behind them, his dad pulled him into a hug.

"We're going to get them back," he said into Stiles' hair. "You hear me? And I'll do whatever you need me to do."

"Thanks, dad." Stiles sagged against his dad and allowed himself a moment to take comfort which he figured was the point of his dad dragging him away. He finally straightened. "I guess we'd better start gathering all that stuff Deucalion wants."

"Deaton's on it," his dad told him. "And he's called his sister to help."

"Sister?" Stiles asked confused then groaned. "Morrell. And she complained about _him_ being paranoid. They're like the secretive twins."

When they went back into the living room, Deaton had left but so had Lydia and Jackson.

"Lydia said that she needed supplies," Isaac told them. 

Stiles huffed an amused breath. "Yeah, I think I can guess where's she's gone."

Sure enough, the two of them returned with an armful of bottles that Stiles had last seen in Harris' cupboard at the front of the Chemistry room.

"I don't want to know." Stiles' dad pointed at them.

"Relax, Sheriff," Lydia said as she got to work on the kitchen table. "We didn't actually break into the school; the band are rehearsing late tonight."

"Don't want to know," his dad repeated, taking a moment to watch what Lydia was doing with an expression of bemusement before he walked back out of the room.

Deaton and Morrell showed up not long after with all the items Deucalion had requested then they all sat down to make their plan of action.

At midnight, Deucalion called back with directions for where Stiles was to meet them and emphasised the fact that he would know if Stiles wasn't alone. He took Lydia's car and about halfway there had to pull over and throw up at the side of the road; he recognised the disgusting taste in his mouth and the shaking in his limbs from when Deucalion had dosed Erica with wolfsbane. He started driving again and prayed that Deucalion had used the same strain he'd used on her before and not the one he’d used on Ennis.

He pulled up outside some old abandoned distillery and took a deep breath before grabbing his bag and walking inside. Derek and Erica were on their knees, the wolfsbane obviously taken effect, and were being held up by the twins. Deucalion was standing in front of them, looking smug, but it was Kali's appearance that made Stiles do a double take. She looked awful; she had bags under her eyes which were ringed in red and not the 'grr, I'm the Alpha' type of red. She looked as though she hadn't eaten for days.

"Good of you to join us, Stiles," Deucalion said. "Did you bring everything I asked for?"

"Yep," Stiles replied, popping the 'p' in the most obnoxious way possible.

"Stiles, you need to..." Derek took a vicious punch from Aiden before he was able to finish.

"I'd stop the Wonder Twins from doing that, if I were you," Stiles told Deucalion. "He won't be able to lead you to the Nematon if he's unconscious."

Deucalion laughed. "You really are a smart one, Stiles. I have enjoyed our time together."

"Good for you," Stiles snarked. "Can we get this show on the road, now? I'd like to get that crap washed off my Sentinels as soon as possible."

"As you wish." Deucalion gestured with one hand.

"Stiles..." Derek tried again as he was pulled to his feet.

"Derek, just lead them to the Nematon," Stiles said in a slightly shaky voice, desperate to help them but unable to do anything. "We'll figure out the rest later, okay? Please."

Erica coughed. "They'll kill us when they get..."

This time _she_ got punched and Deucalion smiled. "We don't need _her_ conscious."

Stiles bit his lip and clenched his hands. "Erica...do as they say, hon. Don't make me watch them hurt you."

Erica looked at him, her eyes reflecting the unshed tears that Stiles knew were in his own, and gave a quick nod.

Kali put a hand on the back of Stiles' neck and held her other arm out for Deucalion to take hold of. The twins pushed Derek and Erica to walk in front of the group. Occasionally they would come to a halt so that Derek could figure out which direction to head next before setting off again. Derek swayed on his feet more and more each time and Erica's stumbling got so bad that Ethan just slung her over his shoulder.

Eventually, they emerged from the trees into a clearing with a very large tree stump in the middle of it. Aiden let go of Derek, who collapsed onto the ground, and Ethan dropped Erica next to him.

"Thank you, Derek," Deucalion said pleasantly. "Stiles, it's your turn."

"My turn to do what?" Stiles asked. "I've got a load of ingredients and no idea what to do with them."

Deucalion reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and brought out some photocopied papers. "Well, it's a good thing that I brought the recipe."

Kali pushed Stiles towards the Nematon and he walked closer to it, dropping to his knees and pulling a torch out of his bag to read the ritual instructions. With a sigh, he began pulling out all the items and arranging them as directed. He poured the oils over the stump and placed the minerals in the correct pattern and as he did so, he could feel slight vibrations in the air around him. It looked like Deucalion was right about it not being completely destroyed. 

It took half an hour but Stiles managed to get all the elements of the ritual in place and all he needed to do was use his own magic to activate the spell. He moved back a couple of paces and then, in a quiet voice, said, "Now."

Deaton appeared between a couple of trees at one end of the clearing. He opened his hand and trickled black powder onto the ground, completing the Mountain Ash circle which had been drawn a little way back from the perimeter of the clearing. 

"What are you doing?" Deucalion growled at Stiles.

He shrugged. "Testing that theory about how you'd be able to sense anyone I brought with me."

From the line of trees inside the Mountain Ash barrier, five pissed off werewolves, a druid and a banshee stepped forward.

"What the fuck?" Aiden said, looking at them all in shock.

"It's a neat spell, right? It completely hides a person's scent," Stiles told him before looking at Deucalion. "You should have kept trying to get Morrell to work for you; she's far better at this crap than I am."

"I'm glad you think so," Morrell called from the opposite side of the clearing to Deaton, both of them standing ready in case the Mountain Ash failed or had to be broken. "I _have_ been a druid my entire life whereas you've been doing it for five minutes but your validation means a lot, really."

"Wow, you're a lot snarkier outside of school," Stiles informed her before turning his attention back to the Alphas.

"You used Peter to find the Nematon," Deucalion said.

"He _did_ used to be the Alpha." Stiles nodded. "And he did a lot of running about the woods in between acts of bloody revenge...which we're not supposed to talk about these days so forget I mentioned that bit. The point is, he found it back then."

Deucalion hummed. "And what, pray tell, do you plan to do now, Stiles?"

"I'm going to wake the Nematon." Stiles glanced at his dad as he came to stand beside him. "Actually, _we_ are going to wake the Nematon."

"You've brought your entire pack here, hid their presence with a spell, just so that you could do what I wanted you to do in the first place?" Deucalion looked confused and wrong footed for the first time since Stiles had met him.

"Well...not _exactly_ what you wanted Stiles to do," his dad drawled.

Deucalion frowned and let out a low growl at that and the twins jumped towards Stiles and his dad only to be intercepted by the rest of the pack. 

Stiles and his dad quickly got to work; they didn't know how long the pack could hold off the Alphas. They stood on opposite sides of the Nematon with their hands hovering above it and Stiles could feel that vibration again. He closed his eyes, trusting his pack to do their thing and that Deaton and Morrell were standing by if anything should happen. At least he knew that the protective circle would stop the Alphas from throwing, chasing or luring the pack members away therefore leaving Stiles and his dad vulnerable while they were distracted with the spell. 

He concentrated on the currents running below the earth and imagined sucking that energy up through the remains of the tree and into his hands. Not having the greatest attention span at the best of times, it was difficult to block out the growls and thumps and the random burst of heat from Lydia's Molotov cocktails. Not to mention the fact that his Sentinels were suffering just across the clearing from him. But eventually, he could feel the energy flowing into his fingertips and opened his eyes to see the Nematon pulse with faint blue light. 

He met his father's eyes and they wordlessly moved into the next spell. The fighting around them intensified suddenly as Deucalion realised what they were doing. Remembering the instructions that Deaton and Morrell had drilled into his head earlier that night, Stiles moved the minerals into a new pattern while his dad simultaneously scattered a mixture of herbs and dried flowers that Stiles had also brought in his bag.

There was a rumbling noise like thunder in the air followed by yelps of pain from several werewolves at once. Stiles sent his dad another look then deliberately raised his hands above the Nematon again but before he could do anything he was being thrown across the clearing. He landed hard on his back and all the air rushed out of his lungs. He heard his name being called but couldn't tear his eyes away from the werewolf stalking towards him. 

Deucalion was wolfed out but all the power he'd taken from various werewolves over the years had obviously changed him. Instead of the normal ‘too much sideburns, too little eyebrows’ look that the other werewolves sported, Deucalion's skin had turned black and leathery. His eyes glowed Alpha red and he exuded pure menace as he moved closer to Stiles looking _extremely_ pissed off.

"You really thought that you could beat me?" he snarled. "A punk kid like you? You may have received some power lately but I am the Demon Wolf!"

Under any other circumstance, Stiles would probably have laughed at that proclamation but it didn't seem so funny when he was about to get his throat ripped out. He scrabbled backwards over the ground to try and put a little bit of distance between them. 

"I thought I'd give it go," Stiles told him as he continued to slip and slide along the grass. "You can't blame me for trying."

There was a subtle shift in the air as the protective barrier disappeared and Stiles began praying that the Alphas didn't notice. Instead he kept moving backwards, making sure that all of Deucalion's attention was on him. Behind the _Demon Wolf_ he could see his pack step up their fight against Kali and the frankenwolf.

"You're pathetic. Look at you, trying to get to your Sentinels for protection despite the fact that they're barely strong enough to swat a fly right now," Deucalion sneered. "Did you really think that someone like you could harness the power of the Nematon?" 

"Hey! Pathetic? What happened to me being smart and making a great Alpha?" Stiles asked, finally reaching Derek and wrapping a hand around his arm. "I knew you were full of shit. You were always going to kill us the first chance you got, weren't you?"

"I would have preferred to kill you _after_ you joined my pack," Deucalion admitted. "That way I could've benefitted but this way will be fine as well. The Nematon is awake and all I have to do is find someone to bind me to it now that I've stopped your feeble attempt to bind your little Triad to it instead."

"I wasn't trying to bind us to the Nematon," Stiles said and Deucalion actually came to a stop at that, obviously able to hear the truth of the statement in Stiles' heart beat. "Dude, two of us are _seventeen_ and the other one is only a few years older. It's bad enough that we're a Triad in the first place; who on earth would trust us with the power from the Nematon as well?" There was a bright burst of blue light that filled the clearing and Stiles pointed over Deucalion's shoulder. "But _those_ three? They're a much better choice. They're really fed up of all this crap happening in their town all the time and have decided to do something about it."

All the fighting had come to a standstill as everyone stared at Stiles' dad, Deaton and Morrell. They were positioned at equal points around the Nematon and blue energy licked over their skin like flames. 

Deucalion let out a roar of anger so loud that the earth shook beneath their feet. Almost too quick for Stiles to follow, he turned and grabbed for Stiles but before his hand did more than brush Stiles' hoodie, Deucalion was yanked backwards and upwards until he was suspended a few feet above the ground. At the same time, a burst of light forced the twins to separate, both of them falling to their knees, and another wrapped around Kali, restraining her. 

The three powered up druids walked across the clearing to stand beneath Deucalion. Stiles was a little worried that none of them had spoken yet but he trusted Deaton, he pretty much trusted Morrell and he thought his dad was the least corruptible man in the entire state. So he busied himself with fussing over his Sentinels instead; he ran to grab his abandoned bag then pulled several large bottles of water from it, dumping it onto their heads with muttered apologies. He then used a couple of towels to try and wipe the majority of the wolfsbane off them, only stopping when Erica grabbed his hand and gave him a tired smile. That was when he fell against the pair of them, hugging them as hard as he could while he finally _finally_ gave into the panic and worry that had been hovering at the edge of his consciousness since he’d realised they were missing.

Derek had regained just enough strength to pull Stiles into his lap and drag Erica against his side. He kept murmuring reassurances to Stiles and running his fingers through Erica's hair as the three of them sat there, collapsed against each other. When they recovered enough to remember what was going on, Stiles looked up and realised that everyone appeared to be waiting for them; except for Deucalion who was still snarling and cursing as he floated in the air. He waved his hand tiredly in a 'carry on' gesture and his dad snorted before turning to address everyone in the clearing.

"This territory is now under our protection," he said in the authoritative tone he used as the Sheriff. "The Hale pack is also under our protection and as long as we're alive will remain unharmed. Kali, Ethan and Aiden...you have a choice to make; stand with your pack leader or _get the hell out of my town_."

"You'll stand with me!" Deucalion roared at them. "Your loyalty is to me!"

That was an Alpha voice if ever Stiles' heard one but from the surprise spreading on the faces of Kali and the twins, it wasn't working on them. 

"No, I'm done," Kali spat. "You lost my loyalty when you killed the man I loved. If these people can break the hold you have on me then I'll welcome it with open arms."

"Ennis," Erica whispered to Stiles and Derek. "She’s wearing his necklace; I saw it on him at the bank vault."

Jesus, no wonder Kali looked so bad. Her pack leader had killed her lover then forced her to keep working for him.

The twins seemed to be having a discussion entirely consisting of facial tics but, in the end, Aiden looked up at Deucalion and shook his head. "We can't stand with you if we don't trust you."

Deaton nodded in satisfaction, ignoring the ranting from Deucalion. "In that case, you'll all be free to go after we receive a few _assurances_ from you with regards to this territory. Deucalion, on the other hand..."

"He's too dangerous to let go," Morrell said. "He'll just try this again in some other town with some other Nematon."

"He admitted to conspiracy to murder a _Triad_." Stiles' dad glared at him. "And he's hurt my family on more than one occasion."

Deaton nodded in agreement and Stiles realised that the three of them had been putting it to a vote. Deaton lifted his hand and the blue flamey glow that had disappeared while Stiles had been concentrating on his Sentinels, came back. There was a bright flash of light then Deucalion fell to the ground, his neck broken.

* * * * * *

Dawn was breaking by the time the pack made it back to the loft. Stiles really hoped he'd never have to go through another 'wash off the wolfbane' shower with his lovers ever again but once it was done, he was able to snuggle up with them both on the bed. Of course, he also had to snuggle up with the rest of the pack because they were almost as shaken by the events of the day as Stiles had been and to kick them out of bed would be cruel. Even if Lydia did turn out to have the boniest elbows in the history of the world; really, she could probably use them as weapons if the school's Chemistry lab ever ran out of supplies for her to steal.

There was no way that any of them were going to be up in time for school so they decided to call it a snow day and slept in until past noon. Then they ordered take out and slobbed around the living room, filling Derek and Erica in on what happened after they were taken.

"You should've seen Stiles, he was awesome," Scott enthused around a mouthful of fried rice. "He completely took charge and even yelled at Peter."

Stiles shifted uncomfortably at the praise. "I yelled at you too, dumbass."

"Yeah, but I'm used to it," Scott pointed out. "Peter actually looked a little scared of you."

"He really did." Jackson snorted in agreement.

Erica nudged Stiles shoulder with a fond expression. "So how the hell did Ms Morrell get involved?"

"She's Deaton's sister," Stiles replied as he picked up a carton of noodles then he looked up at the noises of surprise from the rest of the pack. "You missed that bit? I figured you were all eavesdropping on me and my dad in the kitchen."

"Of course not," Isaac said indignantly. "You were upset; we wouldn't listen in to that."

"Since when?" Stiles asked with a sceptical expression. 

Isaac shrugged. "Actually, it was just that one time...and I wouldn't get too used to it."

Stiles chuckled and shook his head as he began to eat his noodles.

"Your dad said that the territory was under _their_ protection," Derek said, looking at Stiles. "I thought the Triad was supposed to protect the territory."

Stiles nodded. "We will but we're too new at all of this right now; we'd probably just end up getting high on the power and causing more harm than good. Deaton said to look at it as them standing in until we're ready. Of course my dad said it was more about not leaving _his_ town in the hands of damn teenagers."

"I'm more than fine with that," Erica told him. "I was scared enough when I thought I was suddenly going to get Ennis' Alpha power. I'm definitely not ready for what that old tree would give me."

“Me either,” Stiles agreed. “I’m still getting used to the whole druid/Guide thing let alone anything else.”

“You’re doing pretty well from where I’m standing,” Derek said. “Both of you.” Then he paused and looked at the pack surrounding him. “ _All_ of you.”

He could feel the communal pride filling the room at Derek’s words and it made Stiles grin. Who’d have thought, after all that time fighting each other as much as they did the bad guys, that they’d reach this point? He watched happily as Erica giggled at some joke Jackson made, as Boyd threw a fortune cookie at Scott’s head while the other guy laughed and as Derek observed it all with a small smile of satisfaction. Then Derek suddenly caught Stiles' eye and that small smile grew causing Stiles' breath to hitch slightly.

"Okay guys, this has been great but you're gonna want to take the rest of your lunch to go," Stiles suddenly announced to the group.

"What? No," Jackson complained. "We want to stay here."

Stiles stood up and plucked the carton out of Derek's hands, placing it on the table before straddling his legs with a smirk.

"Fine, stay if that's what you really want to do," he told Jackson over his shoulder. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

Isaac, Boyd and Scott instantly jumped to their feet with matching expressions of horror when Erica also straddled Derek, pushing up against Stiles' back and licking a hot path up his neck. They were already in the elevator when Stiles reopened his eyes after the hungry kiss Derek pulled him into but Jackson and Lydia were still sitting on the sofa eyeing the three of them speculatively. 

"Jackson!" Isaac yelled in a begging tone and Jackson finally climbed to his feet with a huff, dragging Lydia after him.

Stiles tried to feel bad about kicking the pack out of the den but mostly he just wanted to strip his Sentinels down, _right now_. He'd been very patient with the whole 'pack needing to spend time with their Alpha after such a traumatic incident' thing but he'd been through the traumatic incident too and he needed to reaffirm the bond.

It was only when Derek stroked his face and agreed that Stiles had been 'so understanding of the pack' that Stiles realised he'd been actually babbling all of that out loud. He also realised that Erica was snickering at the phrase 'reaffirm the bond' which did sound ridiculous and cheesy in hindsight but that was honestly what it felt like to him.

Stiles glared at Erica without any heat behind it and said, "You gonna laugh all day, Sentinel? Or are you going to make me scream?" 

Both Erica and Derek's eyes flashed at the use of their title and Stiles just had time to think 'oh shit' before he was carried across the room towards the bed.

Later when he was sweaty, flushed and aching in all the right ways, Stiles sprawled across his lovers as they all ate the now cold Chinese takeout in bed.

"I'm not trying to pass any dispersions on your obviously god and goddess-like sex skills," he said. "But I could've sworn that I heard Scott's voice back when Erica was actually making me scream."

Erica smirked. "Apparently Lydia forgot her purse and Scott was made to come back to get it. He seemed to believe that talking loudly to himself about every movement he made as he made it would block out the sounds that you were making but he obviously grossly underestimated just how loud we can make you yell."

Stiles flushed. "I guess he won't be looking me in the eye for a day or so then."

"I think that Lydia left her purse behind on purpose," Derek mused as he stole some of Erica's sweet and sour chicken. "Or, at least, claimed that she needed it back right away so that she could sneak back in to watch us. Except Scott obviously got sent instead of her."

"I bet that she actually did it so that _Jackson_ would get sent back and pick up some pointers," Stiles said with a chuckle. At the confused faces the other two were making, he explained, "Lydia got very territorial about Ethan making eyes at Danny and she isn't even the werewolf of that little triangle. I'm sure she's told Jackson about it by now and they've both started to cook up a way to keep Danny with them and only them."

Erica laughed. "So that's why she kept texting me those questions all morning. I thought she was just being inappropriate and, you know, _Lydia_."

Derek looked thoughtful. "Danny's the guy who you made me strip for that time, right? The one who's good with computers?" When Stiles nodded he asked, "If it comes to it, do you think he'd make a good addition to the pack?"

Stiles exchanged a look with Erica. "I'm not sure that he'd want the bite; Danny's pretty comfortable with himself as he is. But he's a good guy and it would definitely make Jackson happy if he didn't have to lie to his best friend anymore."

"Plus his hacking skills are bound to come in handy one of these days," Erica added. 

Derek hummed. "We'll keep an eye on the three of them and see what happens first." Then he rolled his eyes when both Stiles and Erica started snickering.

* * * * * *

For the first time in what felt like forever, Stiles and the pack could finally breathe and relax a little. Kali had left town as soon as the druids allowed, promising to tell every werewolf she came across that Beacon Hills was protected. Stiles wasn't privy to the exact spell but he knew that his dad, Deaton and Morrell had somehow removed the extra powers Kali had got from killing her pack and bound her from getting the same boost if she did anything like that in the future. They'd cast the same spell on the twins but the twins had actually asked permission to stay in Beacon Hills; apparently they liked it there. The pack found the whole thing pretty funny, not just because the twins would have to go to the standing Alpha of the territory, aka Derek, before they did _anything_ that could be seen as problematic but because it also caused Lydia and Jackson to step up their plans to seduce Danny before Ethan could get him.

Allison had obviously noted the group absence the day after the fight with Deucalion and become suspicious. That had resulted in Chris Argent showing up at the Stilinski household after Stiles got home from school a few days later. He'd blatantly wanted to grill Stiles on what was going on but ended up being pulled into the house and yelled at by a very irate Sheriff and new town protector. Stiles hadn't been so entertained in ages and just wished that he'd had the time to make popcorn. He did manage to video as much of it as he could on his phone which he gleefully showed the others later that night. 

Stiles knew that Chris had helped him, Erica and Boyd but he still didn't particularly like or trust the man and it was joy to see the dumbstruck expression on his face as Stiles' dad explained exactly who he was and laid down the law when it came to hunters in the town and the Hale pack. In the end, Chris had explained that he and Allison were considering getting out of the hunting business altogether and were going to France for the summer to 'decompress'. He promised to have a meeting with Stiles' dad when they returned and had made a decision. 

"Oh, and Argent?" His dad had stopped Chris as he was leaving the house. "If the place where you've stashed your father is within the town limits, I _will_ find him and I'll repay every single injury that he gave my son, with interest. Do you understand me?"

Chris' face had actually paled and he nodded before hurrying off to his SUV and Stiles had danced the dance of _awesome_ until his dad smacked him upside the head.

Things at school pretty much stayed the same with a new story being gossiped about seemingly every few hours. The news of Stiles and Erica being in a relationship had burned bright for a while but was overtaken by the story of Jackson punching one of the new twins for talking to Danny. 

Stiles was finally allowed off the bench during lacrosse practise and between Scott, Isaac, Boyd, Jackson and an increasingly dazed looking Danny, he was actually getting some good tips and learning new techniques that he was sure would help him get onto first line. He was just celebrating the fact that he'd got a goal past Danny when the coach pulled him to one side.

"Never let it be said that I don't look out for my team, Stilinski," Coach said then unsubtly nodded his head towards the bleachers where Lydia and Derek had just arrived. They'd no doubt been summoned by Erica who'd already been watching the practise for the past half hour and was probably getting bored. "You might want to hit the showers early to avoid what's about to happen."

Stiles opened his mouth to reply but then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see that Erica had pulled out a homemade glittery sign with Stiles' name on it and was trying to get Derek to hold up a sign of his own. Stiles burst out laughing and waved his lacrosse stick at them in appreciation. 

Finstock stared at the way the hot girl he'd seen Stiles kissing and the hot guy he'd seen Stiles cuddling were playfully bickering and obviously in no way about to have a catfight, then he threw his hands in the air. "How are you _doing_ this?"

Stiles tried to think of an excuse but then just shrugged. He looked back at the bleachers and knew his Sentinels would be able to hear him reply, "I guess I just got lucky."

Finstock stormed off, muttering to himself, but Stiles stayed where he was, goofily grinning beneath his helmet and feeling the love he sent along the bond being returned to him. 

"Definitely lucky," he murmured then, with one last look at his lovers, he let Scott and Boyd drag him back to the practise.

Fin


End file.
